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WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA 



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J.BEERBOHM 



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LEISURE HOUR SE R IE S.—No. 104 



Wanderings in Patagonia 



OR 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS 



BY 



JULIUS BEERBOHM 





NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1879 






% 



^ 



!i\ 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



IN the month of August, 1877, I found myself 
on board ship, bound from Buenos Ayres for 
the coast of Patagonia, in company with a party 
of engineers, who were going to survey that por- 
tion of the country which lies between Port Desire 
and Santa Cruz. 

After leaving the River Plate we encountered 
adverse winds and heavy weather, which kept us 
tossing about for three weeks, without making 
any material progress on our course. At last we 
got a fair wind, however, which soon brought us 
close to our destination, the port of St. Julian 
(lat. 49 20' S.) ; and one morning, together with 
1 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



IN the month of August, 1877, I found myself 
on board ship, bound from Buenos Ayres for 
the coast of Patagonia, in company with a party 
of engineers, who were going to survey that por- 
tion of the country which lies between Port Desire 
and Santa Cruz. 

After leaving the River Plate we encountered 
adverse winds and heavy weather, which kept us 
tossing about for three weeks, without making 
any material progress on our course. At last we 
got a fair wind, however, which soon brought us 
close to our destination, the port of St. Julian 
(lat. 49 20' S.) ; and one morning, together with 
1 



2 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

my five-o'clock coffee, the cabin-boy brought me 
the welcome news that land was in sight. I 
jumped out of bed and ran on deck, careless of 
the hail and rain which were falling in blinding 
showers, and of the wind which blew off the land, 
far colder and sharper than we had hitherto ex- 
perienced. On looking to leeward I could at 
first see nothing but a thick bank of clouds ; but 
presently the horizon got clearer, and I descried 
a dark, lowering line of coast, of fierce and in- 
hospitable aspect, rising abruptly from the sea to 
a considerable height. 

I had not long to examine it, for a sudden shift 
of the wind shrouded the whole coast in mist, 
and it did not become visible again till the after- 
noon, when the weather cleared up, and the sun 
shone out brightly. The wind, however, slowly 
increased in violence; by the time St. Julian 
came in sight we were plunging along under 
reefed topsails, and the captain began to think 
that we should have to stand off the port till the 
force of the storm had abated — a prospect which 
threw us all into dismay, as we had already been 
looking forward with vivid expectations to the 
pleasure of stretching our legs oh terra firma the 
next morning — a luxury which those who have 
made a long sea voyage can fully appreciate. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 3 

While the captain was yet doubtful what course 
to take, the matter was summarily decided by 
the weather itself. The wind, which had hitherto 
been blowing from the north-east, shifted to the 
south-east, and redoubled its fury; and rather 
than run the risk of standing off the port for the 
night, under a lee shore and with a strong current 
setting in to the land, the captain elected to face 
the lesser danger and enter the port. 

The necessary orders were accordingly given ; 
a man was sent aloft to look out for banks or 
rocks, and all preparations were made for any 
emergency. An anxious time ensued for all on 
board as we steered slowly in under the northern 
headland of St Julian, menaced on either side by 
steep and rugged cliffs, falling vertically down to 
the water's edge, the sea dashing at their base 
with an angry roar, and hurling the white spray 
almost to their very summits. The gale howled 
through the rigging, and a thousand sea-birds, 
startled at such an unusual apparition, circled 
round the ship, white and silent, seeming to eye 
us with an unpleasant curiosity. 

Suddenly we heard a shout " Breakers ahead !" 
and every one turned pale and looked anxiously 
forward. Right in front of us, and forming a belt 



4 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; 0R t 

across the entrance of the port, stretched a line 
of breakers, boiling and foaming like a caldron, 
while to the left a long ledge of black, jagged 
rocks pierced through the waters, promising cer- 
tain destruction should we drift upon them. For 
a moment the captain was irresolute ; but it was 
too late to go back ; in any attempt to put the 
ship round we should have gone on the rocks, 
and there was, therefore, no alternative but to 
continue our course and dash through the break- 
ers, leaving the rest to fate. On we went, with 
beating hearts and strained nerves, as the threat- 
ening roar of the foaming rollers became louder 
and louder. In another second we were in their 
midst, and every one held his breath in suspense. 
Suddenly there was a shock ; the ship quivered, 
and I was thrown violently on my face. By the 
time I got to my feet again all danger was over. 
We had crossed the harbor bar and were now 
sailing slowly up the bay in comparatively 
smooth water, and congratulating ourselves on 
our escape from what had looked a most serious 
peril. The wind, too, had lulled, and by the time 
we let go the anchor all was still and calm. The 
sun was just setting ; one by one the gulls, alba- 
trosses, and other sea-birds, which had hitherto 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



5 



Deen continuously sweeping round the ship, dis- 
appeared ; and not a sound was heard from either 
side of the broad bay. 

On arriving in port after a long sea voyage 
the sudden change of scene and associations, the 
bustle and noise of commercial activity — the 
steamers, lighters, and other small craft, plying 
from shore to shore, the ships moored alongside 
the wharves, taking in or discharging cargo, the 
busy hum arising from the distant town, the sight 
of new faces, and the sound of strange voices — 
all combine to excite and bewilder one, contrast- 
ing forcibly with the dull, quiet, and drowsy 
sameness of the life one has just been leading 
during several weeks of dreary navigation. 

But none of these accustomed sights and 
sounds gladdened our hearts in the desert harbor 
where we had just safely come to anchor, after 
our stormy passage. The silence of death reign- 
ed everywhere, and its mysterious effect, joined 
to the wild character of the surrounding country, 
whose bold, bare hills were now looming gigantic 
and black in the gathering dusk, impressed me 
with a vague sense of awe and wonder. 

And not out of harmony with the gloomy 
spirit of solitude which broods over St. Julian are 



6 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

the tragic memories connected with the three 
famous nautical expeditions which have visited 
its inhospitable shores. 

We were anchored between two islands — 
Justice and Execution Islands. These names 
were given to them by Sir Francis Drake, who 
visited St. Julian in 1578. On the former he 
caused one of his party, a Master Doughty, to 
be put to death for alleged insubordination. Sir 
Francis found a gibbet already erected on one of 
these -islands, which had been left there by Ma- 
gellan, who passed the winter of 1520 at St. 
Julian, and who, during his stay, had also to 
quell a formidable mutiny which broke out 
amongst his little fleet ; and which, but for his 
timely energy, foresight, and courage, might 
have ended fatally for him. The ringleaders 
were executed. In more modern times another 
fatality occurred during the expedition of the 
Adventure and Beagle, 1832. A Lieutenant 
Sholl, a young officer of much promise, died 
there, and was buried on a point overlooking the 
bay which now bears his name. The spot is 
marked by a small cairn, bearing an inscription 
recording the date, etc. 

As I looked over the bay, for all the change 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. y 

that has happened there since, either in the rug- 
ged outlines of its shores or in the spirit of silence 
and desolation that hangs over them, it seemed 
that it might have been but yesterday that Ma- 
gellan dropped anchor there, with his quaint, 
high-pooped craft, 

" The first who ever burst into that silent sea." 

Peering into the darkness till a mist rose into 
my eyes, I gradually fell into a half-dreaming, 
half-waking state, and presently I seemed to be- 
hold some strangely rigged vessels lying close to 
me in the bay. Magellan's own ships ! There 
was the tall, spare figure of the intrepid com- 
mander himself, standing on the poop of the 
largest vessel, dressed in a brown leather jerkin, 
the cross-hilted sword at his side ; and I could 
plainly mark the expression of dauntless enter- 
prise on his weather-worn brow, and the deter- 
mined gleam of his sharp gray eyes, whose 
glance now wandered over the far shore, and 
now rested reverentially on the high cross fixed 
on the poop. I could see the quaintly costumed 
sailors busy at work on deck, repairing rigging, 
mending boats, or making sails, talking and 
shouting the while in a strange tongue. Hardy, 



8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA . 

noble figures these men, who, in the frailest of 
craft, braved a thousand dangers in the wildest 
countries, and fearlessly carried the symbol of 
their religion to lands which mariners of to-day, 
with all the advantages of modern instruments 
and superior vessels, approach with the utmost 
mistrust and dread. Soon a bell rang, and all 
was silence ; the men left their work and gathered 
round the commander, who, I thought, seemed 
to be addressing them. And then floating over 
the waters came the sound of the "Ave Maria !" 
weirdly sweet and plaintive. 

But at this juncture somebody shook me, and 
I woke up to find it was all a dream, and to re- 
member that Magellan had been dead and buried 
for centuries, and that I, a son of the nineteenth 
century, had come to that spot, not to plant the 
true Cross, but to find what the country was ca- 
pable of — and that, finally, it was time for supper. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE next morning we were up betimes. The 
weather was fine, and, as there was no wind, 
not too cold, though the taller hills were covered 
with snow, and the thermometer stood consider- 
ably below zero. Plenty of sea-birds were flying 
round the ship, or disporting themselves in the 
water, heedless of our presence; but on shore 
there were no signs of animal life stirring any- 
where. Preparations were made for getting the 
horses on shore as quickly as possible, as theii 
long confinement was beginning to tell injuriously 
upon them. In the mean time a boat was low- 
ered ; and, taking our guns, a few of us started 
off for the shore to find some suitable spot to 
land the horses, and to have a general look 
round. 

A short pull brought us in sight of a little 

9 



IO WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

cove, with a strip of sandy beach leading up to 
the main-land, which fell steeply down on all 
sides, so as to form a kind of natural corral, 
where the horses would be quite safe and con- 
veniently sheltered from the wind. There we 
accordingly landed, roughly waking the echoes, 
which had doubtless been comfortably sleeping 
for many a long day, with a loud hurrah, as we 
jumped on shore and climbed up the bluff which 
shut in the cove. There the first object which 
met our sight was the little cairn already men- 
tioned, commemorative of Lieutenant Sholl. It 
was standing, probably, just as it had been left 
by the hands which reared it, as the Indians sel- 
dom, if ever, come so near to the port. The 
letters of the inscription were still tolerably visi- 
ble, for the stones suffer little from the action of 
the atmosphere, and gather but few mosses or 
lichens in that dry climate, where, during nine 
months of the year, hardly any rain falls, and 
where all vegetation is stunted and scanty. 

The view we obtained from our present stand- 
point was very limited, the horizon being bound- 
ed by a chain of conically shaped hills, flattened 
at the top, and generally similar in outline and 
height. The country which they inclosed ap- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. j i 

peared to consist of a series of irregular plains, 
broken up by glens, or "canons," as they are 
aptly called in Spanish, with here and there an 
isolated hill and an occasional plain of short ex- 
tent. There were plenty of bushes of a thorny 
species scattered everywhere, and in the glens 
the grass seemed to flourish in tolerable luxuri- 
ance, though on the higher-lying land it was less 
plentiful, the ground there being covered with 
pebbles of porphyry, worn round and smooth by 
the action of water at some remote period. 

After our long cooping-up on board we were 
not equal to any prolonged exertion, and soon 
got tired of climbing up the steep hills and es- 
carpments, especially as there was no employ- 
ment for our guns, either in the shape of beast 
or fowl. We therefore went back to our boat, to 
get at which, as the tide had already fallen con- 
siderably, we had to wade knee-deep through a 
long tract of black, slimy mud. As there is a 
tide range at St. Julian of from thirty to forty 
feet, the ebb and flood tides rush in and out with 
great rapidity, and we often had great difficulty 
in pulling back to the ship, even with four oars, 
when the wind and tide happened to be against 
us. 



j 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

The rest of that day was employed in getting 
the horses on shore, a task which was successfully 
accomplished before the tide commenced to rise 
again, so that they had comparatively little dis- 
tance to swim to the cove. The poor animals 
seemed as glad as we had been to find themselves 
on land once more, and testified their satisfaction 
by neighing and frisking about with great vigor. 
In the evening we made a short excursion to 
Justice Island, close alongside of which we were 
anchored. Whilst exploring it we startled a 
large covey of shag, numbering quite a thousand, 
which, to judge by the accumulation of guano, 
appeared to roost there habitually. They did 
not fly up immediately at our approach, but wad- 
dled clumsily down to the beach, holding their 
bodies quite erect and flapping their wings in a 
ludicrous manner. The sailors killed several with 
sticks, and subsequently cooked and ate them, 
notwithstanding the strong fishy taste of the flesh. 

Early the next morning, together with two of 
my companions, I started on an expedition to- 
wards the interior, with a view to discover what 
kind of country lay beyond the range of hills 
which bordered the horizon. We took some 
provisions with us, as we did not expect to be 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. j^ 

home till the evening, thinking it prudent not to 
rely on our guns for our dinner, after the experi- 
ence of the previous day of the absolute absence 
of game ; indeed, we left them behind us, as be- 
ing rather irksome on horseback. 

Mounting the three freshest horses we could 
find amongst our stock, we struck off at an in- 
spiriting gallop. We had not gone far when it 
came to an abrupt ending, however. The plain 
over which we were riding suddenly terminated, 
descending into a deep ravine, which seemed to 
wind from the hills down to the port. The 
descent was rather steep, but we got down some- 
how ; and then our horses had a hard climb up 
the opposite side, rendered still more arduous by 
the loose nature of the pebbly soil, which afford- 
ed no reliable hold, giving way under their feet. 
On reaching the top we found ourselves on an- 
other plain, intersected a little further on by a 
ravine similar to the one we had just crossed; 
and so we continued, now scrambling up and 
down these canons, now leisurely trotting over 
short plains, whose level surfaces gave our horses 
time to get breath and to prepare for tackling the 
next ravine, until gradually we got nearer to the 
hills, beyond which we hoped to meet some more 
pleasant variety of landscape. 



14 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 



Presently we came to a very broad canon, on 
the surface of which we observed some irregulari- 
ties, which, on inspection, proved to be the re- 
mains of some human habitation. Portions of 
wall, about three feet high, were still standing, 
and here and there lay several pieces of timber, 
but, excepting a millstone, half imbedded in the 
soil, there were no other vestiges of those who 
had once attempted to create a homestead in this 
lone spot. 

The colony, on the site of which we were now 
standing, was founded in 1780 by Antonio Vied- 
ma, under commission from the viceroy of the 
River Plate Provinces, and was abandoned in 
1784, in accordance with a royal order, chiefly 
on account of the sterility of the soil, which 
rendered agriculture impossible. The colonists 
also suffered severely from scurvy, and were 
further troubled by the Indians, whose hostility 
they seemed to have incurred. The Spaniards, 
whatever grave faults they may have committed 
in the administration of their South American 
possessions, developed great energy and spared 
no expense in their endeavors to colonize Pata- 
gonia, and numerous expeditions were dispatch- 
ed from Buenos Ay res with this object Settle- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



'5 



ments were established at Port Desire and other 
spots on the coast, all of which, sooner or later, 
came to share the fate of the colony of St. Julian. 

And indeed it is not to be wondered at. Un- 
less some very cheap manure be discovered, by 
means of which sand may be profitably fertilized, 
or unless some new source of riches at present 
hidden be discovered there, it is much to be ap- 
prehended that Southern Patagonia is destined 
to remain almost entirely unpopulated and un- 
cultivated till the end of time. In the canons, 
where there is a little alluvial soil, some scanty 
crops might be harvested, or a patch of potatoes 
might be cultivated ; but the spring and summer 
months are so dry that even these limited at- 
tempts at husbandry might not always be attend- 
ed with favorable results. Sheep might be rear- 
ed in the valley of the Santa Cruz River, though 
not in great numbers, as the pasturage there is 
rather limited, and the grass itself is coarse and 
long, and not particularly adapted for sheep, for 
which it is preferable that it should be short and 
fine. 

The coast is extremely rich in fish, however, 
and a dried-fish trade might, perhaps, be success- 
fully carried on with the Brazils, where a good 



1 6 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

market exists for this article, which forms the 
staple diet of the poorer classes in that country. 
An attempt to start an industry of this kind was 
made by a Frenchman, M. E. Rouquand, who 
established himself in 1872 at Santa Cruz, with 
all the machinery, boats, etc., necessary for such 
an undertaking, under a concession granted to 
him by the Argentine Government. He built 
several houses and sheds there, the materials for 
which were conveyed at great expense from 
Buenos Ayres, and when everything was ready, 
and he was about to go practically to work, a 
Chilian man-of-war steamed into Santa Cruz one 
day and signified to him that he was trespassing 
on Chilian territory, and would be required to 
leave immediately. Chili, it appears, claims ju- 
risdiction over Patagonia as far as Santa Cruz 
River, and could therefore not permit any one to 
attempt to benefit that country whose author- 
ization to do so came from the Argentine Gov- 
ernment. The latter country does not admit 
Chili's claims to possession over the territory in 
question, but contented itself in this oase with a 
diplomatic protest against the act of violence 
committed in defiance of the Argentine flag, un- 
der whose protection M. Rouquand had laid out 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. iy 

his capital and his energies. In the mean time 
M. Rouquand is of course ruined, as neither 
Government has granted him any compensation 
for the losses he has sustained by his arbitrary 
ejection. After such an example, and as the 
settlement of the territory dispute seems to have 
been indefinitely shelved by the easy-going 
countries concerned, it is easy to understand why 
no one has hitherto been found disposed to risk 
his time and capital in an endeavor to establish 
any industry on the Patagonian coast. 

Turning our backs on the "Glen of the Span- 
iards," as it is still called in Indian traditional 
nomenclature, we again continued our journey 
towards the hills, which were in reality much 
further than they had appeared at first sight, be- 
ing, by the rather roundabout road by which we 
had come, about fifteen miles from the port. 
Another hour's ride brought us to their base, and 
as the keen morning air had made us all rather 
hungry, before going any further we dismounted, 
and having made a good fire with the branches 
of some of the thorny bushes which abounded 
everywhere, and which proved an excellent com- 
bustible, we discussed a hearty breakfast of cold 
meat and biscuit. 
2 



! g WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OP, 

After a short rest we remounted and rode 
slowly up a glen which led between the hills, 
craning our necks expectantly as we climbed the 
escarpment which bound its further end, from the 
top of which we should have a good view of the 
surrounding country. We emerged on the sum- 
mit, and behold, there was nothing but an im- 
mense plain, stretching away in dreary uniform- 
ity to the far horizon. The scene was not a 
cheerful one. Down in the canons the grass is 
long and green, and clumps of underwood, grow- 
ing at intervals, lend a pleasant variety to the 
landscape. But on the plains, which often ex- 
tend uninterruptedly for thirty or forty miles, all 
is different, and nothing more dull and dreary 
can be imagined than the view presented by these 
immense tracts of land, where, by reason of the 
sterility of the soil and the fierce winds which 
sweep continuously over them, no vegetation can 
possibly flourish. The soil is sandy and covered 
with stones, with here and there an isolated tuft 
of grass, withered and gray, whilst a peculiar 
gloom is further added to the character of the 
scene by the sombre, melancholy hue of a strag- 
gling, stunted bush, the jume, which grows there 
in considerable quantities, in its blackness and 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. IO , 

ugliness, the fit offspring of such an uncongenial 
soil. 

The plain we were now standing on was no 
exception to the general rule, and we found but 
little inducement to remain immersed in a long 
contemplation of its charms, so turning our 
horses' heads, we followed the course of the hill 
range, which trended in a semicircle towards the 
port. After having ridden for some distance the 
plain terminated, and we descended into a bro- 
ken country again, marked with the usual pecul- 
iarities of glen and plateau. We presently came 
in sight of a large lake, which we thought might 
contain fresh water, but on coming closer we 
found that the shores were covered with salt 
crystals, and that the soil in the vicinity was im- 
pregnated with salt, too. The lake measured 
about two leagues long by a league and a half 
broad at the widest part, but the water was very 
shallow everywhere. We could see a herd of 
guanacos standing in the centre, and the water 
did not reach to above their knees. I have fre- 
quently observed these animals standing in the 
salt lakes, which abound everywhere in Patago- 
nia, but whether they actually go to drink I am 
not prepared to say, though it is hard to account 



20 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

in any other way for their presence there. We 
looked with some curiosity at these guanacos, as 
they were the first animals we had met witrr as 
yet on the main-land, but they were too far off 
for us to be able to observe them with accuracy. 
I shall describe the species at another opportunity. 

In the mean time it was getting late, and our 
horses, which had been severely tried by the nat- 
ure of the ground we had gone over that day, 
were beginning to show signs of fatigue. My 
horse, in particular, was completely done up, and 
it was with great difficulty that I managed to 
keep up with my companions. 

At sunset we were still a long way from the 
ship. Dusk came o*n apace, the hills around us 
first grew indistinct and hazy, and then gradually 
settled down into a dark, solid mass, blackly de- 
fined upon the lighter background of the sky, 
over which the stars were now glittering in the 
frosty air. It was getting cold, too, and I began 
heartily to wish myself on board, especially as 
every moment it became more apparent that my 
horse was in imminent peril of collapsing alto- 
gether. 

Still he stumbled on, occasionally shying wild- 
ly at the glimmering whiteness of some heap of 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 l 

bleached guanaco bones, or startled at the fanci- 
ful shapes assumed by the bushes in the deepen- 
ing shadows of night. 

Presently, as I was riding up a rather steep 
escarpment, my horse's saddle-girths slipped 
back, the saddle rolled over, and I fell with a 
heavy thud to the ground. The moment he felt 
relieved of my weight, and before I could jump 
up and seize the reins, the horse turned round 
and leisurely trotted back to a glen we had just 
left, where there was some fine grass, which had 
evidently taken his fancy in passing. I ran after 
him as fast as I could, but he gently, though 
firmly, refused to be caught, pausing now and 
then, whenever he had distanced me, to snatch a 
few mouthfuls of grass, and then starting off 
again as soon as I came near to him. This kind 
of thing went on for a long time, and when I had 
at last caught him, and had picked up the vari- 
ous saddle-belongings, I was completely done up. 
Not more so, however, than the horse, for when 
I remounted him he refused to budge an inch, 
and at the first touch of the whip, quietly lay 
down. I was now in a pleasant plight. I shout- 
ed, in the hope that my companions would hear 
me, but no answer came. They had evidently 



22 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

not noticed my mishap, and had continued their 
route, thinking I was coming up behind. 

Reluctantly I had to make up my mind to stop 
where I was till the morning, though the pros- 
pect was anything but cheerful. I was too tired 
to go on on foot, and no persuasion would induce 
my horse to stir. I was very hungry, and, un- 
fortunately, one of my companions carried what 
remained of the meat and biscuit ; and though it 
was extremely cold, I had no other coverings for 
the night but my saddle-cloths, having neglected 
to bring my fur robes with me. Luckily I had a 
box of matches ; and having broken off a suffi- 
cient quantity of dry branches from the bushes, 
I soon managed to have a good fire burning, 
whose warm glow afforded me no little comfort. 
As a substitute for supper, though it was not a 
satisfactory equivalent, I smoked a pipe, and 
then, wrapping myself up as well as I could in 
the saddle-cloths, I lay down by the fire and tried 
to go to sleep. This I could not accomplish, for 
although I fell into a half-doze at first, as soon as 
the fire got low, the cold thoroughly woke me 
again, and I had to set off and look for a fresh 
supply of fire-wood — by no means a plentiful 
article. I soon made the fire burn up again ; 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



23 



but, do what I would, I could not get to sleep, 
and finally had to abandon the attempt as hope- 
less. 

The night seemed interminable. Occasionally 
I would get up and walk to and fro, to pass 
away the time quicker, but the cold soon drove 
me back to the fire. I confess I should have 
liked some companion to enliven my weary vigil. 
All alone in the wild desert, surrounded by the 
dark night, I felt quite an "uncanny" feeling 
come over me as I listened to the strange whis- 
perings which seemed to creep through the grass 
and hover in the air, as the wind rose and swept 
down the narrow glen where I was camping. 
The more I listened, the more these noises seem- 
ed to multiply, till at last there was quite a Babel 
of confused sounds and vague murmurings. 
Now and then I would start to my feet, fancying 
I heard voices close to me, or something would 
rustle mysteriously past, and a sound as of faint 
laughter would seem to ring from out the depths 
of the darkness around me. For a time I was 
kept in quite a state of nervous agitation, but it 
gradually wore off, and soon I became stolidly 
indifferent to everything except the fire, to re- 
plenish which from time to time I had to make 
an excursion in search of wood. 



24 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

The hours went slowly by as I sat watching 
the stars creeping over the heavens, longing 
wearily for day-break. At last, worn out with 
fatigue, I fell into a troubled slumber, and when 
I opened my eyes again the sky was already gray 
with dawn. My fire had gone out, and my limbs 
were stiff with cold. On a bush near where I 
was lying four carranchos, a kind of hawk, were 
perched, eyeing me with a complacent, watchful 
look, as if they expected shortly to make a meal 
of me. Feeling quite uncomfortable under their 
unholy gaze, I flung a stone at them, but they 
merely flew up a little, circled once or twice 
round me, and then lighted again on another 
bush, quite as much as to say, "Never mind; we 
can wait." They abound in the pampas, and as- 
semble in great numbers whenever a puma slays 
a guanaco, as the former often contents itself 
with merely sucking the blood of its victim, 
leaving the rest to these birds and the vultures, 
who soon pick the bones clean. 

I rekindled the fire, and after I had warmed 
my stiffened fingers, I saddled the horse, which I 
had tethered to a bush during the night, and 
rode off towards the port. I arrived at the cove 
after about an hour's sharp riding, and found that 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



25 



my companions had also been obliged to pass the 
night in the open air, as their horses had eventu- 
ally succumbed under the fatigue consequent on 
their hard day's work. 



CHAPTER III. 

DURING the next few weeks we were busy 
examining the country in the vicinity of St. 
Julian, without finding anything of special inter- 
est to reward our pains. Near the salt lake al- 
luded to in the last chapter we discovered some 
extensive deposits of phosphate of lime, but as 
they are very far from the port, they must be 
considered to have practically no commercial 
value. Perhaps, however, when all the guanos 
and nitrates of more accessible regions have been 
exhausted, the phosphates of Patagonia may be 
utilized for manuring purposes, but in the inter- 
ests of agriculture it is to be hoped that that day 
is as yet far distant. 

St. Julian is a far superior harbor to either 
Chubut or Port Desire, but there is a dearth of 
fresh water in its vicinity during the months from 
26 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



2/ 



October to June, which is of course a great draw- 
back, and neutralizes its other advantages. In- 
deed, the whole country is but sparsely watered. 
South of the Rio Negro, which must be consid- 
ered as the dividing line between Patagonia and 
the Argentine provinces, there are only small 
rivers, the Chubut, the Desire, and the Santa 
Cruz. Coy Inlet and Gallegos rivers during nine 
months of the year are unimportant streams, and 
the former at certain periods frequently dries up 
altogether. 

The river Chubut has never been followed to 
its source by any trustworthy traveler, but Dr. 
Moreno, an Argentine explorer, from personal 
observations and from information obtained from 
the natives, is inclined to place its source as taken 
from a lake, called Coluguape by the Indians, 
which lies somewhere between lat. 44 to 45 ° S. 
and long. 68° 69/ W., Greenwich. Thence it 
flows in a north-north-easterly direction till with- 
in about sixty miles from its mouth, and then, 
having received near this point the waters of sev- 
eral small streams from the Cordilleras, it flows 
from west to east, and finally empties itself into 
the Atlantic in lat. 42 20' S. The depth of the 
river at forty miles from its mouth varies from 



28 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

five to eight feet, according to the time of the 
year. Its current is not so rapid as that of most 
Patagonian rivers, but its extremely tortuous 
course makes it difficult to navigate. Its estuary 
forms a tolerably safe harbor for craft of light 
draught. 

The Welsh colony at Chubut, which numbers 
at present about 700 souls, was founded by the 
Argentine Government in 1865. It is not, and 
never has been, in a flourishing state; but this is 
due not so much to the unfertility of the Chubut 
valley as to the fact that most of the people sent 
out from Wales by the government agent to form 
the proposed agricultural colony were miners, 
who of course knew nothing about farming 
matters. For a great many years the colonists 
were supported entirely by the government, and 
on several occasions when accidents had hap- 
pened to the vessels which were bringing stores 
for them from Buenos Ayres, they were saved 
from starvation by the Indians, who supplied 
them with guanaco and ostrich meat. At 
present the prospects of the colony are rather 
more hopeful: about 15,000 bushels of wheat 
were harvested last year ; but even now the col- 
ony is not self-supporting, and costs the Argen- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



29 



tine Government large sums annually for provis- 
ions and other assistance afforded the colonists. 

South of Chubut lies Port Desire, formed by 
the estuary of the river, or rather stream, of that 
name. The Desire does not rise in spring and 
summer, like Gallegos and the other Patagonian 
rivers, to any great extent, a circumstance which 
makes it probable that it does not take its source 
in the Cordilleras, but rather from a chain of 
hills, which, according to Dr. Moreno, traverses 
the centre of Patagonia, running south-south- 
west from the Sierra de San Antonia near the 
gulf of San Matias. The Spaniards formed a 
colony at Port Desire, which, after having ex- 
isted for a few years, was officially abandoned in 
1807. The remains of a fort and some houses 
are still standing near the port, as well as some 
apple and cherry trees, with which the climate of 
Patagonia seems to agree very well. 

I pass over the incidents of the rest of my 
sojourn at St Julian, as having no relevancy to 
the object of this work. Suffice it to say that by 
the little government schooner which makes two 
or three voyages annually from Buenos Ayres to 
the Rio Negro and Santa Cruz, and which on 
this occasion put into St. Julian to bring us our 



30 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

correspondence, I received some letters convey- 
ing important news, which made my speedy re- 
turn to Buenos Ayres imperative. About the 
same time a party of ostrich-hunters, attracted 
by the smoke of our fires, came to St. Julian 
from Santa Cruz, partly out of curiosity to see 
the unusual visitors, and partly to trade for bis- 
cuits and tobacco. They did not stop long; and 
as they were going back to Santa Cruz, and from 
there to Sandy Point in the Straits of Magellan, 
where I should be able to take a steamer for 
Buenos Ayres, I embraced this favorable oppor- 
tunity, and, packing up a few things, started off 
with my new acquaintances. 

We had not gone far, however, when it com- 
menced to rain, and there being no particular 
object in getting wet, we halted for the day and 
took shelter under our tent, hoping that by the 
next morning it would be fine again. In this 
hope we were disappointed; it rained incessantly 
for about four days, during which we of course 
remained where we were, and very tired I soon 
got of it. • The ground was as damp as could be, 
and so loosened by the moisture that the stakes 
of our tent gradually "gave," and the slack can- 
vas being no longer water-tight, little pools of 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



31 



water gathered round the furs and saddle-cloths, 
which served us in lieu of bedding, permeating 
them with a general dampness, which made our 
nightly slumbers rather uncomfortable. The 
day-time we passed cowering round the fire, with 
some covering thrown over our backs to keep off 
the rain, the front part of the body requiring no 
extra covering, for as fast as it was wetted it 
dried by the fire, which for this purpose was al- 
lowed to assume formidable dimensions. Under 
such unfavorable circumstances, conversation 
rather flagged, as may be imagined, being lim- 
ited to occasional prophecies and conjectures as 
to when the weather might be expected to 
change for the better. But in revenge, the 
tobacco-pipe and the mate-pot went round the 
circle without any intermission, and .during the 
days of forced inaction consequent on the rain, 
we consumed startling quantities of those two 
almost indispensable commodities of pampa life. 

Yerba-mate is a kind of tea, in great repute 
throughout South America, especially amongst 
the country people, who drink it at all their 
meals, and whenever they have nothing particu- 
lar to do, which is very often. It is the leaf 
of a shrub (Ilex Paraguanensis), extensively 



32 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

cultivated in Paraguay and the Brazils, constitut- 
ing, in fact, the chief article of commerce of the 
former country. The powdered leaf is steeped 
in boiling water and imbibed through a thin pipe 
(bombilla), perforated with holes, so as to pre- 
vent the fine herb from being sucked up with the 
fluid. It has a bitter, aromatic flavor, and 
though usually taken with sugar, many find it 
equally palatable without the latter adjunct. Its 
restorative powers are marvelous, and frequently, 
when thoroughly exhausted after a hard day's 
ride, I have taken a cup or two of mate, and 
found myself immediately revived and invigor- 
ated. It is decidedly a better stimulant than 
either tea or coffee, and as it does not seem to 
lose its flavor by exposure to the air and damp 
as quickly as those articles do, it is naturally 
preferred by those whose profession forces 
them to take these qualities into account in the 
selection of their victuals. Mate, as I have al- 
ready said, is indispensable to the hunter in Pat- 
agonia. For months it is often the only addi- 
tion he can make to his otherwise exclusively 
meat diet. In fact, he is never without it, except 
when in the saddest plight, and for its sake he 
would forego any other luxury, such as sugar, 
biscuit, or rice. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



33 



It is surprising that hitherto no attempt has 
been made to introduce yerba-mate into Europe 
as an article of domestic consumption. It has 
only to be known to be appreciated, and as it 
could be imported pure, far cheaper than tea or 
coffee, it might in time prove a formidable rival 
to those beverages, especially among the work- 
ing classes, to whom its invigorating qualities 
would particularly recommend it. 

Whilst the rain is pouring down upon us, I 
may as well take the opportunity of introducing 
my four companions to the reader. But first a 
few words as to their common profession, that of 
the ostrich^hunter. 

In the plains that stretch from lat. 40 to 53 
S., and from the sea- coast to the Cordilleras, the 
ostrich and the guanaco roam in immense num- 
bers, their procreativeness being such as to more 
than neutralize the ravages caused among them 
by their numerous enemies, such as the Indians, 
the pumas, and the foxes. The Patagonian 
ostrich is much smaller than his African cousin, 
and the feathers are not nearly so valuable, the 
price usually paid for them at Sandy Point being 
from $1 to $2 per lb. The trade of the ostrich- 
hunter is not, therefore, very lucrative ; but his 
3 



34 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

wants, on the other hand, are very modest. Be- 
sides, he follows his profession more from a love 
of the wild pampa life, with its freedom from irk- 
some restraint and awkward social obligations, 
than from any desire to amass wealth ; more 
from a necessity to satisfy his vagabond instincts, 
than from any impulse derived from some definite 
aim in life. His hunting ground extends as far 
as he chooses to gallop. His stock-in-trade con- 
sists of ten or twelve hardy horses, five or six 
dogs of a mongrel greyhound species, a lasso, a 
pair of bolas, a knife, a revolver, and a long 
steel; besides, of course, all the necessary ac- 
coutrements for his horse, which, together with 
the indispensable capa, form his bed at night. 

The capa is a long robe of guanaco furs, about 
five and a half feet long by four and a half 
broad. They are made by the Indian women, 
who are very clever at sewing, notwithstanding 
the primitive clumsiness of their rude tools. 
Their needles consist of pieces of bone sharp- 
ened to the requisite point, and the thread they 
use is made from guanaco sinews. The skins are 
of the young guanacos before they are three 
weeks old, as after that time the fur becomes 
coarse and woolly. These capas are extremely 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 35 

warm, and effectually protect one from the cold 
winds that blow over the pampas, when almost 
any other garment would prove insufficient. A 
novice experiences considerable difficulty in the 
management of their somewhat awkward folds, 
especially on horseback; but the Indians wear 
them with infinite ease and grace. 

The "bolas," or balls, are of two kinds, being 
either two round stones or pieces of lead, covered 
with leather and joined by a thong of from six 
to eight feet long ; or three balls, united by 
thongs to a common centre. The latter are used 
chiefly for guanaco-hunting, and not a little skill 
is required to handle them efficiently. After 
having been swung round the head till the requi- 
site pitch of velocity has been attained, the balls 
are hurled at the animal pursued, and becoming 
firmly twisted round whatever part of its body 
they may fall on, they effectually hamper its 
speed, and enable the hunter to come up to it 
and give the coup de grace with his long knife. 

With no other impedimenta than the above- 
mentioned, the ostrich-hunter roams at will over 
the vast pampas. At night-time he makes him- 
self at home under shelter of some thick bush, 
which, if such be his caprice, may become his 



3 6 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

head-quarters for weeks and even months, espe- 
cially if the game in the vicinity be abundant. 
His movements are altogether uncertain, and by 
no means regulated by any reference to time, to 
the course of which he is sublimely indifferent. 
The chase supplies all his wants. With the hide 
of the guanaco he makes his lasso, reins, bolas, 
and even shoes; whilst its flesh, varied by that 
of the ostrich, forms his staple article of diet. 
When he has collected a sufficient quantity of 
feathers, he pays a flying visit to Sandy Point, 
sells them, and with the produce lays in a new 
stock of tobacco and mate, renews his wardrobe, 
i.e., say a shirt, a poncho, a jacket, and a chiripa; 
and if there still remains anything over, he may 
buy another horse, or some dog which may have 
taken his fancy. 

For the rest, he is a careless, easy-going vaga- 
bond, always cheerful, whatever plight he may 
be in, and submitting with calm philosophy to 
any of the many hardships the inclemency of the 
climate may entail upon him. There are, how- 
ever, few ostrich -hunters pur sang in Southern 
Patagonia, though up near the Rio Negro they 
are more numerous; but those one does meet 
with are all distinguished by the characteristics I 
have described. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 37 

I will now attempt a sketch of my four com- 
panions, beginning with the most striking among 
them, Isidoro, who is several times mentioned in 
Captain Muster's interesting book, "At Home 
with the Patagonians." He was an Argentine 
Gaucho with a dash of Indian blood in his veins, 
who had come down to Patagonia many years 
ago from the Rio Negro. He was a slender, 
well-built man, with a pleasant, swarthy face, of 
a warm, earth-brown complexion, set in by a 
profusion of long black hair, which he carefully 
groomed every morning with a comb, whose 
teeth, being old, were decayed and few and far 
between, kept for the purpose in the recesses of 
a rather greasy cap. Broad and shaggy eye- 
brows, meeting over a bold Roman nose, and 
shading a pair of bright, restless eyes, habitually 
veiled by half-closed lids and the longest of 
lashes ; slightly high cheek bones ; full, thick 
lips ; and a shaggy beard and mustache complet- 
ed the tout ensemble of his really striking face, 
the general expression of which was one of in- 
telligence and good humor. 

His dress, which combined materials of Indian 
as well as European manufacture, was not un- 
picturesque, and consisted of a woolen shirt, a 



3 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

"chiripa," a covering for the lower limbs some- 
thing like a kilt, secured by a strap at the waist, 
into which were stuck the inevitable hunting- 
knife, revolver, pipe, and tobacco-pouch. His 
feet were encased in potro boots, tied at the 
knees with Indian-worked garters ; and over all 
hung the long capa. 

The recipe for making a pair of potro boots is 
very simple, and the operation requires no previ- 
ous knowledge of the cobbler's art Having 
killed your horse, you make an incision with a 
sharp knife around the hide above the hock, say 
at the commencement of the lower thigh, and 
another a couple of inches below the curb-place, 
and then proceed to draw the hide off the legs. 
Each leg will thus supply a comfortable Welling- 
ton, in which the point of the hock has become 
the heel. Of course, before fit for wear the hide 
must be well softened by hand — a task which 
requires no little patience, for if not thoroughly 
done, the boots after a time will become quite 
hard and useless. As soon as they have been 
worn long enough to have taken the shape of the 
foot, the toe ends are sewn up, and the transfor- 
mation of your horse's hocks into easy-fitting 
boots is an accomplished feat. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 39 

When hunting, the belt and bolas are strapped 
outside the capa, so that the upper part of the 
latter may fly loose whenever any exertion re- 
quires that the arms should be free, as when las- 
soing or throwing the bolas. 

Isidoro was one of the best riders I have ever 
seen, and even amongst the Indians he was 
allowed to have no equal. The most unruly colt 
became quiet in his hands, and after a few inef- 
fectual attempts to dislodge its rider, would sul- 
lenly acknowledge the mastery of his firm hand 
and easy seat. All his horses were wonders of 
tameness and careful and intelligent teaching. 
His method of taming them I subsequently had 
an opportunity of studying, and in due course 
will revert to it. He was equally proficient in 
the use of the lasso and bolas, seldom, if ever, 
missing his aim. One of his peculiarities was his 
extreme watchfulness ; not the slighest detail 
could escape his vigilance, and when any one, as 
often happened, would mislay a knife or some 
such object, to save further trouble Isidoro was 
always appealed to as to its whereabouts, which 
he would invariably point out immediately— the 
missing article often lying under a bush or sad- 
dle-cloth, where it had been thrown by its care- 



40 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; 0R t 

less owner perhaps a day or two ago. It seemed 
as if Isidoro made it his special duty to look 
after every one's things, though, to judge by 
appearances, he never paid particular attention to 
anything except his pipe, which seldom left his 
mouth. His sharpness of vision was intense, 
and he could detect guanacos and ostriches on the 
far horizon when I could see nothing but bushes 
or clouds. Another distinguishing feature was 
his taciturnity. Only on very rare occasions 
have I heard him utter more than three or four 
words at a breath, and often he would sit for 
hours with the rest of us round the fire, listening 
attentively to all that was said without breathing 
a syllable the whole evening. As the owner of 
some thirty fine horses, he was considered quite 
a rich man amongst the Indians and ostrich-hunt- 
ers ; and, on account of his honesty, good nature, 
and quiet, unassuming bearing, he was a favorite 
with every one. 

We will pass on to Garcia, who in appearance 
at least formed a striking contrast to Isidoro. 
His yellow beard, brown hair, and blue eyes 
seemed to betoken a Saxon rather than a Span- 
ish descent. However, be that as it may, he was 
a true Gaucho, and but slightly inferior to Isi- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



41 



doro in horsemanship and general address as a 
hunter. He had formerly been a soldier on the 
Argentine frontiers, and in that capacity had had 
many a fight with the Indians, thrilling accounts 
of which he would often favor us with over the 
evening's fire. Subsequently he had worked as 
" tropero " (cattle- driver) on the Rio Negro, a 
profession which in due course he had relin- 
quished in order to become an ostrich-hunter. 
Having lived more amongst civilized people, his 
manners were less abrupt than Isodoro's, and he 
was rather more talkative and genial than the 
latter. 

Next comes Guillaume, who was by birth a 
Frenchman, and who had originally been a black- 
smith ; but some chance having wafted him to 
Patagonia, he had taken a fancy to the country 
and remained there, and was now fast becoming 
naturalized. He was an active, intelligent fel- 
low, and equal to any amount of hard work. 
One of his most striking features was his enor- 
mous appetite, the amount he could devour at 
one meal being simply astounding. It is on rec- 
ord amongst his companions that he demolished 
a whole side of a young guanaco at a sitting. 
But notwithstanding this extraordinary faculty 



42 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

for eating, he was as thin as could be, and always 
had a hungry, half- starved look. 

His very antithesis was Maximo, the last of the 
group, who in size and corpulence might have 
competed with the most Herculean Patagonian 
Indian. He was an Austrian, age twenty, I 
think, and had formerly been a sailor, but having 
been wrecked on the syren shores of Patagonia, 
like Guillaume, he had been unable to withstand 
its subtle attractions, and having embraced the 
profession of ostrich-hunting, with the natural 
aptness of sailors, he had soon mastered the mys- 
teries of his craft and was already an adept at 
the use of lasso and bolas. His strength was 
such as his burly dimensions warranted, and he 
would often surprise us by the ease with which 
he would tear up firmly seated roots and stout 
underwood for firing purposes. He was, more- 
over, as I was surprised to find, an accomplished 
linguist, and spoke Spanish, Italian, French, Ger- 
man, and English with tolerable fluency, though 
I think he could neither read nor write. His 
appetite, like Guillaume's, was Homeric, the two 
being a host in themselves. 

Maximo was not so rich as his companions; 
indeed, his whole property consisted in a horse 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



43 



and a dog. The former was a wiry little animal, 
and apparently impervious to fatigue, for its own- 
er was by no means a feather-weight, and it was 
a matter of continued astonishment to me how 
it managed to carry him along, day after day, 
over tiring hilly country, with occasional fierce 
gallops after ostriches, without ever showing 
signs of distress. Neither was his attire so ele- 
gant or so comfortable as that of his companions. 
It consisted, on my first becoming acquainted 
with him, of a shirt and a pair of trousers; 
boots he had none, but would now and then wear 
a pair of sabots, made with the skin of the hind 
legs of the guanaco. However, the capa made 
up for all defects in dress, and Maximo was per- 
fectly content with things as they were. Withal 
he was the best-tempered fellow imaginable, and 
the stoic indifference he showed to the discom- 
forts of rain and cold, and his equanimity under 
all circumstances, were simply heroic. 

As these four men, who by various strange 
chances had been thrown together on this desert 
spot, from such different parts of the world, were 
to become my companions during a long period 
of hardship and adventure, I have described them 
at some length, especially as I feel sure that their 



44 



WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA . 



peculiar and utterly unconventional mode of life, 
so different from that of the ordinary people one 
meets in every-day intercourse with the world, 
will invest them, in the eyes of my readers, with 
the same romantic interest with which I regarded 
them. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE rain continued to pour down almost 
without interruption for four days, till one 
afternoon a shift of the wind brought a definite 
change for the better ; the clouds cleared off, the 
sun shone out brightly, and we were cheered by 
the sight of blue sky again. 

We hastened to spread our furs, sheep-skins, 
and general clothing on the bushes to dry, as 
everything had got more or less damp during 
the recent down-pour, and, thanks to the wind 
and sun, by supper-time we were able to indulge 
in dry shirts and stockings again, which, with 
the luxury of having dry beds to creep into that 
night, in perspective, sent up our spirits a hun- 
dred degrees, and made the conversation over 
that evening's supper as lively as it had hitherto 
been dull. 

45 



4<5 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

Maximo told the story of the shipwreck which 
had first thrown him on Patagonian shores. 
Garcia related some exciting incident of his front- 
ier warfare experience ; Guillaume recounted 
the hardships and dangers he had undergone dur- 
ing the siege of Belfort in 1870, having belonged 
to the brave garrison which defended that fort- 
ress ; and even Isidoro, yielding to the genial in- 
fluence of the moment, so far abandoned his ac- 
customed silence as to tell us how, when a soldier 
in the Argentine service at Rio Negro, he had 
deserted and run away with a tribe of Tehuelche 
Indians, who were going south, with whom he 
lived for a long time, and from amongst whose 
brown-skinned daughters he had eventually 
taken unto him a wife. He admitted, however, 
that his matrimonial existence had not been a 
happy one. Mrs. Isidoro, it appears, took to 
drinking and became too noisy and violent for 
her husband, who of all things loved quiet, so 
without any further fuss, and without many 
words, as was his custom, he led her back to her 
father's tent, where, with a short explanation, he 
left her, thus consummating his divorce a mensd 
et thoro, with expeditious ease, and securing for 
himself the blessing of undisturbed peace for the 
future. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



47 



We rose at day-break the next morning 
and commenced preparations for starting. The 
horses, some fifty in number, were driven to- 
gether, those selected for the day's work were 
severally lassoed, and this being done, the others 
were allowed to disperse again and return to their 
grazing whilst we got ready. 

Although as tame as cats in every other re- 
spect, very few of these Indian-tamed horses al- 
low one to approach them on foot ; as a rule they 
can only be caught with the lasso. When a 
horse observes that it has been singled out from 
the herd for capture, it does its utmost to evade 
the flying noose, and often gives a great deal of 
trouble before it can be finally caught, but the 
moment it feels the lasso alight round its neck it 
will stop short in the fiercest gallop, and imme- 
diately gives up any attempt at resistance, which 
it knows would be useless, and when once it is 
bridled, the lasso may be removed and it will 
stand in the same spot for hours without at- 
tempting even to graze. 

Our stock of provisions, viz., some rice, bis- 
cuit, farina, sugar, mate, and a stone bottle of 
gin, were carefully packed up, and together with 
the tent and cooking utensils, an iron pot, a 



4 g WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

saucepan, and a tin kettle, were placed on the 
pack-horse, a sturdy animal, who trotted away 
under his load as if it had been a feather-weight 
We then commenced saddling our own horses 
— a somewhat lengthy operation. The articles 
which constitute the saddle-gear of a horse in the 
pampas are rather numerous, and at night-time 
serve, with the aid of the capa, as mattress, bed- 
clothes, and bedstead. First one lays two or 
three blankets or cloths, folded square, on the 
horse's back, taking care that they lie smooth 
and form no creases ; over these comes a covering 
of leather, called a "carona," which consists of 
two thick pieces of leather sewn together, and 
which is very useful at night-time, as it forms a 
damp-proof foundation for one's bed. On the 
carona the saddle is placed, and firmly secured 
to the horse by means of a broad leather girth, 
and over the saddle again are laid the sheep- 
skins, furs, or whatever coverings one may pos- 
sess. All being ready for starting, we strapped 
our capas well around us, a few logs were heaped 
on the smoldering fire, we warmed our hands, 
which had got stiffened with the cold whilst sad- 
dling, smoked a last pipe, and after a look round 
to see if anything had been forgotten, jumped 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. aq 

into the saddle, whistled to the dogs, and we 
were off, en route for Santa Cruz. 

It was a bright morning. The wind was just 
cold enough to make one feel grateful for the 
warm sunshine, and to give that exciting tingle 
to the blood which influences one's spirits like a 
subtle wine. I felt its power, and a strange ela- 
tion made my pulse beat quicker as I rode gayly 
along, inspirited by the strong, springy step of 
the good horse I bestrode, and inhaling deep 
draughts of the pure, clear air, which seemed to 
sweep the cobwebs of care from my brain, and to 
blow all unpleasant thoughts far from me, mak- 
ing me feel gloriously happy in the mere con- 
sciousness of the fact that I breathed and had 
being. 

I seemed to be leaving the old world I had 
hitherto known behind me, with its turmoils and 
cares and weary sameness, and to be riding mer- 
rily into some new sphere of free, fresh exist- 
ence. I felt that without a pang I could break 
with old associations, renounce old ties, the 
pomps and the pleasures, the comforts, the both- 
ers, the annoyances of civilization, and become as 
those with whom I was now traveling — beings 
with no thought for the morrow, and, therefore, 
4 



5 o WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

with no uneasiness for it either, living the life of 
our nomadic ancestors, in continual and intimate 
contact with nature — an uncheckered, untroubled 
existence, as wild, simple, and free as that of the 
deer that browse on the plains. 

We were riding along a broad glen, down the 
middle of which a rapid stream was flowing. 
Guillaume and Maximo were busy driving the 
horses before them — no easy matter, as, now and 
then, one or two would lag behind to crop up a 
mouthful of grass, or the whole troop would 
make a dash in the wrong direction, only to be 
got together again after much galloping and 
shouting. 

The neighing of the horses, the continual cries 
of "Jegua ! Jegua ! " with which they were urged 
along, and the tinkling of the bells on the "Ma- 
drinas" (bell -mares) broke cheerfully on the 
silence of the glen and startled many a flock of 
wild geese who were disporting themselves there 
in numbers, and occasionally a guanaco or two, 
who had been grazing in the young grass, would 
gaze at us in a momentary fit of curiosity, and 
then bound away with their graceful, springy 
gallop, neighing defiance at us as they glided 
swiftly up the far ravine. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



51 



After we had gone some way, Isidoro and 
Garcia and myself rode ahead of the horses, in 
order to look out for ostriches, Isidoro taking one 
side of the Canada, which was about a mile and a 
half broad, and Garcia and myself the other. I 
felt very excited, as it was my first hunt after 
this kind of game. The dogs, with erect and 
quivering tails and noses down, were eagerly 
running this way and that, scenting the ground 
or snuffing the wind which came in light puffs 
down the Canada. 

Presently they made a simultaneous dash for- 
ward and started off after something, and my 
horse, evidently an old hunter, with a sudden 
start that almost threw me out of the saddle, 
dashed after them, ventre a terre, like wild-fire, 
side by side with Garcia, who was already loosen- 
ing the bolas to prepare for action. 

I soon descried the ostrich, which was hurrying 
along as fast as its legs would carry it, wings 
drooping and neck outstretched, with the whole 
covey of dogs close on its heels. The race was 
at first doubtful, but a moment of indecision 
brought the ostrich into difficulties, and the dogs 
slowly gained on their prey. Already the fore- 
most one was up to it, when the ostrich suddenly 



5 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

darted sideways, whilst the hounds, unable to 
stop their impetuous speed, shot forwards a long 
way before they could recover themselves. By 
that time the bird was half-way up the side of 
the glen and out of danger, and Garcia whistled 
to the dogs, who came back slowly and sulkily 
with their tails between their legs, looking wist- 
fully over their shoulders at the retreating bird, 
which was already a mere speck on the summit 
of the ravine. 

Garcia told me that the ostrich, like the hare, 
often resorts to this trick of "doubling" when 
hard pressed. It is not always as successful as it 
had been in the present case, as the dogs gen- 
erally know the exact moment and in what direc- 
tion the ostrich is going to double, and are pre- 
pared accordingly. 

We were riding slowly along, talking about our 
late disappointment, when another ostrich started 
up almost from under our very feet. With a wild 
shout we dashed after it, Garcia getting ready 
with the bolas, now our sole means of capturing 
the bird, as the dogs had lagged far behind us on 
some wrong scent. The horses were on their 
mettle, and in headlong chase we tore after the 
distressed quarry ; but though we strained every 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



53 



nerve, we could not gain an inch of ground, and 
in another second we should have lost the ostrich, 
who was making for the steep ravine-side, when 
Garcia, swinging the bolas two or three times 
round his head, flung them with strong hand at 
the retreating bird. Luckily lighting on its neck, 
they entangled its legs, and it fell to the ground, 
kicking desperately. An instant after and we 
were up to it, and Garcia ended its struggles by 
breaking its neck, and then proceeded to disem- 
bowel it — a process watched with peculiar inter- 
est by the dogs, the offal, etc., being their share 
of the spoils. 

The trophy was then hung to Garcia's saddle, 
and we went back on our tracks to look for the 
nest, for, from the bird havirlg started up so close 
to us, Garcia surmised that it must have been sit- 
ting, as during that period they are loath to leave 
their nests at the approach of danger till the very 
last moment. Garcia proved to be right, for, 
after a short search, we came upon the nest, 
which contained fourteen eggs, a prize we were 
not long in securing to our saddles. 

I found the nest to be of the roughest descrip- 
tion, being simply a hole scooped in the ground, 
under shelter of a bush, and made soft for the 
young chicks by a few wisps of grass. 



54 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

The number of eggs found in a nest varies 
from ten to forty, being usually about twenty. 
In size the Patagonian ostrich's egg is equal to 
about eight hen's eggs. It is the male bird that 
hatches the eggs and looks after the young, be- 
ing, I believe, the only male among birds which 
does so. The period of incubation is from twenty 
to twenty-four days. During rainy weather he 
never leaves the nest, but will sit for six or seven 
days without feeding. In fine weather he grazes 
for an hour or two in the evening, but never 
strays far from the nest, as master Reynard, who 
is always prowling near, would soon make a raid 
on the eggs. It is said that if one egg is broken 
or abstracted from the nest during the absence of 
the male bird, on returning he will immediately 
detect the theft, and become so furious that he 
will dash the remaining eggs to pieces, and dance 
round the nest as if frantic. 

After the hatching period, the birds lay their 
eggs promiscuously about the plains. These 
eggs are called "huatchos" by the natives. They 
keep for a long time, and I have frequently met 
with huatchos in April, which, although they 
must have been laid more than six months at 
that time, were still fairly eatable. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



55 



The ostrich of Southern Patagonia (Rhea Dar- 
zuinii) is smaller than the "Avestruz moro" 
(Rhea Americana ), as the species which frequents 
the country near the River Negro is called by the 
natives. The color of its plumage is brown, the 
feathers being tipped with white, whereas the 
moro, as its name indicates, is uniformly gray. 
The R. Darwinii are extremely shy birds, and as 
their vision is remarkably acute, it is by no means 
an easy matter to catch them, unless one has very 
swift dogs to hunt with. 

At the approach of danger the ostrich often 
crouches flat on the ground, with its neck stretch- 
ed out under the grass, remaining motionless in 
this position till the dogs have gone past. This 
stratagem is successful when the wind is blowing 
against the scent, but when the contrary is the 
case, the dogs soon discover the hiding bird, 
which, doubtless too bewildered by the sudden 
failure of its naively artless ruse, makes no at- 
tempt to escape. 

Our companions by this time were a long way 
ahead of us, so we started after them at a brisk 
gallop. On the way we met Isidoro, who had 
also been fortunate, as two ostriches dangling 
from each side of his saddle evinced. 



ij 5 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

We continued to journey along the winding 
ravine, all helping now to drive the horses and 
keep them well together — an essential matter 
when rapid progress is desirable, for if the troop 
once gets broken up and scattered, one may 
spend no end of time in galloping about and 
herding the horses together again. 

At about five o'clock we passed a fine thick 
bush of considerable height, which appeared so 
well adapted for affording shelter that we resolved 
to camp under Jt for the night, especially as I, 
not being accustomed lately to such long rides, 
already began to feel rather tired and shaken. 

In a few minutes after we had made this deci- 
sion our horses were unsaddled, the saddle- 
gear, packs, ostriches, etc., thrown higgledy- 
piggledy in a heap, and every one lay down in 
the grass to stretch his limbs and smoke a pipe — 
a simple indulgence, which, under such circum- 
stances, becomes an absolutely priceless luxury. 

A small fire was then made, the kettle filled 
from the rivulet which ran down the centre of 
the ravine, and as soon as the water boiled, mate 
was prepared, and we sat for some time silently 
imbibing that stimulating concoction, whose 
wonderful powers of banishing fatigue I have al- 
ready alluded to. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



57 



Presently Maximo and Guillaume went off to 
collect fire-wood, whilst Isidoro and Garcia 
busied themselves with plucking the ostriches 
and laying the feathers in bundles, in which form 
they enter the market. I stretched myself out 
on my furs and awaited the dinner-hour with 
eager expectation, as my ride and that sharp, dry 
air peculiar to Patagonia, had given me the real 
pampa appetite, under the influence of which one 
becomes so inordinately and irksomely ravenous 
and experiences such an unnatural craving for 
food, as quite to justify one in considering one's 
self attacked by some transitory but acute dis- 
ease which has to be undergone by the stranger 
in Patagonia, like those acclimatizing fevers pecul- 
iar to some tropical countries. 

In an hour or so Guillaume and Maximo re- 
turned, bringing a huge bundle of dry wood be- 
tween them, and' the kitchen being Maximo's 
special department, he immediately set about 
getting dinner ready. Thanks to his efforts, a 
fine fire was soon blazing; the big iron pot was 
filled with water, ostrich meat, and rice, and set 
to boil, and several other dainties were set to 
roast on wooden spits or broiled in the ashes, 
emitting odors of grateful promise as they sput- 



5 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIAj OR, 

tered and browned under Maximo's delicate 
handling. 

Meanwhile we sharpened our knives, took up 
comfortable positions round the fire, and the chef 
having declared everything ready, the onslaught 
commenced. 

I append the carte for the benefit of those curi- 
ous in such matters: 

Pot-au-feu (rice, ostrich meat, etc.). 

Broiled ostrich wings. 

Ostrich steak. 

Cold guanaco head. 

Roast ostrich gizzard, a V Indiouie. 

Ostrich eggs. 

Custard (ostrich eggs, sugar, gin). 

A glance at the above will show that a pampa 
dinner may be pleasantly varied. Of the items 
mentioned I think the ostrich wings are the 
greatest delicacy, tasting something like turkey, 
and, as I then thought at least, perhaps even 
finer. The ostrich gizzard, too, was worthy of 
note, being broiled Indian fashion, with hot stones 
— a task which, as requiring great finesse, was 
superintended by Isidoro himself, who in his way 
was a remarkable cook. The flavor of ostrich 
meat generally is not unpleasant, especially when 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



59 



fat. It varies greatly, according to what part of 
the bird it is from. The wings, breast, and ex- 
tremity of the back, are the tit-bits. The thighs 
are coarser, and bear a close resemblance to 
horse-flesh. 

When all the meat was consumed, Isidoro, who, 
by the bye, seemed to be able to produce any- 
thing that was required from somewhere or other 
(generally from his cap, which was quite a store- 
house for all kinds of extraneous articles), now 
turned up with a small soup plate and a dilapi- 
dated spoon, and I was requested to help myself 
to the broth and rice in the pot, handing the plate 
back to Isidoro when I had finished, who in his 
turn passed it to Garcia, and so on till it had 
gone round the circle. 

We then lay back to smoke and recover from 
our exertions, whilst the dogs cleared up what- 
ever fragments remained from the feast. 

Here I may say a few words about the dogs, 
of which there were in all about eighteen with 
us. Most of them were greyhounds of more or 
less pure breeds, imported by the Welsh settlers 
at Chubut, the others being nondescript curs of 
heavier build, which were useful for pulling down 
the guanacos brought to bay by the fleeter but 



6o WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

less powerful greyhounds. Their various merits 
and failings formed the usual topic of an even- 
ing's conversation, their owners comparing notes 
as to their respective achievements during the 
day's hunting, or recalling previous wonderful 
performances worthy of remembrance. 

We were quite overrun by such a number of 
dogs, and often they became a nuisance only to 
be borne when we remembered that after all they 
were the meat givers, without whom we should 
find ourselves in a very unpleasant plight. They 
had a peculiarly happy knack, when wet, of 
creeping into one's furs, and making one's bed 
damp for the night ; and often I have been awak- 
ened by one of them trying to go comfortably to 
sleep on the pillow beside me, and thrusting its 
cold nose into my face as a preliminary. When 
eating, if I happened to lay down a piece of 
meat for a moment, it was sure to be immedi- 
ately snapped up by one of them, and they 
would even snatch away the morsel held in my 
hand if I did not take care to keep them at a 
safe distance. All provisions had to be put on 
the top of a bush, well out of their reach, as neg- 
lect in this particular might bring on the unpleas- 
ant alternative of going supperless to bed. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. fa 

We sat for some time round the fire, chatting 
and smoking, and then each looked out for his 
furs and bed-gear, arranged his couch, and be- 
fore long we were all fast asleep. 

I woke once, roused by some horse which had 
strayed from its companions, and which was 
snuffing at me curiously, till on my starting up 
it bounded away, snorting with terror. 

Before going to sleep again I looked around 
me. There was a faint scent of fresh earth on 
the cold night air, and a slight frost had fallen 
over bush and grass, which told that dawn was 
not far distant. The moon was shining full over 
the valley, bathing it in hazy light. I could see 
the horses standing about in black knots of twos 
and threes, some dozing, some grazing, the bells 
of the madrinas occasionally breaking the deep 
silence with a soft tinkle. Round the fire, 
some logs of which still smoldered redly, my 
companions lay motionless, sleeping soundly un- 
der cover of their warm furs. 

Fascinated by the strange novelty of the scene 
and the calm silence of the hour, I lay for a long 
time gazing about me. I watched the soft charm 
of silvery indistinctness, lent to the landscape by 
the moon's rays glittering on the frosty crystals, 



62 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA . 

gradually fade away, as the moon's splendor 
paled before the new light which sprang up in 
the east. Soon the bushes, the grass, and the 
winding ravine stood out sharply defined, looking 
gray and bleak in the sober light of dawn. The 
face of nature seemed blank and wan, like the 
face of a man on whom the morning light 
streams after a night of vigil. With a shiver I 
drew my head under my capa, and fell into a 
sound sleep again. 



CHAPTER V. 

WHEN I awoke there was a good fire crack- 
ling and blazing cheerfully, and I lost no 
time in getting up and joining my companions, 
who had already risen, and were taking mate 
and enjoying the warm glow of the fire, which at 
that damp, chilly hour was indeed welcome. 

As we were not going far that day we were in 
no hurry to start off, preferring to wait till the 
sun should get high enough to dispel the cold 
mist which hung over the country. 

We took our ease over breakfast, therefore, and 
it was already nearly midday when Maximo rode 
down the ravine to collect the horses. We waited 
for a long time, but to our surprise he did not 
re-appear, and presently Garcia went after him to 
see what was the matter. After a time they both 
returned, driving the horses before them, but re- 

63 



64 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

porting Isidoro's stallion and several of his mares 
missing. From the appearance of the tracks 
Garcia seemed to think that some wild stallion 
had made a raid on the mares and driven them 
off — a piece of news which filled Isidoro with 
consternation, as he feared by that time the miss- 
ing animals might be forty or fifty miles away, 
beyond any hope of recapture. Without losing 
any time, therefore, we all saddled, and leaving 
some of our gear and packages under the bush 
where we had been camping, we started off on 
the trail. 

Some way down the canon we came to a place 
where there had evidently been a fierce struggle. 
The ground wa.s torn up in all directions, and 
Isidoro's sharp eye was not long in detecting 
some tufts of hair lying in the grass, which he 
declared came from the coat of his own bay 
stallion. Some of the hoof- marks were very 
large, larger than could have been made by any 
of his horses, and he quite confirmed Garcia's 
surmise, that some "bagual" (wild horse) had 
carried off the mares, after having previously 
fought and vanquished his own stallion. We 
had no difficulty in following the trail, as the 
recent rain had made the ground quite soft. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



65 



The tracks went along the canon for some dis- 
tance, and then suddenly turned and went up the 
canon-side on to the plain. We had not gone 
far over the latter when our horses pricked up 
their ears and began to sniff the air in a nervous 
manner. A few strides more brought us to the 
edge of the plain, and in the canon at our feet 
we discovered Isidoro's bay stallion, looking very 
crest-fallen and woe-begone. At our approach 
he gave a faint neigh of satisfaction ; but he had 
hardly done so when it was answered by a tri- 
umphant paen from another quarter, and from 
behind a bend in the canon, meekly followed by 
Isidoro's mares, issued a magnificent black stal- 
lion. Undeterred by our presence, he made 
straight for his but recently vanquished rival, 
with head erect, nostrils distended, and his long 
mane and tail streaming in the wind. As for the 
bay: 

" Not a moment stopped or stayed he ; " 

but ignominiously took to his heels, and started 
up the canon at full speed. 

Isidoro, who was some way ahead of us, gal- 
loped to the rescue. The bagual, strange to say, 
however, suddenly rushed at him, standing up on 
its hind legs, and beating the air with its fore feet 
5 



66 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

in a threatening manner. Taken by surprise, 
Isidoro had hardly time to loosen his bolas when 
the furious brute was upon him, and for a mo- 
ment I thought it was a bad case. But Isidoro 
was as cool as he was adroit, and in another sec- 
ond the bagual dropped on its knees, half 
stunned, struck full in the forehead by a well- 
aimed blow of the balls. Before it could recover, 
Garcia's lasso whizzed through the air and 
lighted on its neck, and then, setting spurs to his 
horse, he galloped away at full speed in an oppo- 
site direction. The shock, as the lasso tautened, 
threw his horse on its haunches, but the stallion 
lay half strangled and powerless. To finish mat- 
ters, Maximo whipped his lasso over its fore feet, 
and drew them tight together, and the poor 
brute was thus reduced to utter helplessness. 

We could now contemplate it at our ease. It 
was a splendidly made animal, and far larger 
than any of the horses of our troop. I was very 
much astonished at the way it had shown fight, 
as I had imagined that, being wild, it would have 
fled at the sight of man. I pleaded strongly that 
its life might be spared, but the fact that it was 
in very good condition weakened the force of any 
argument I might bring in support of my plea, 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



6 7 



fat meat in spring being a luxury which my com- 
panions did not feel justified in depriving them- 
selves of, if fate chanced to throw it in their way. 
The poor bagual was accordingly dispatched, 
skinned, and cut up, but eventually none of the 
meat was eaten, for, much to every one's disap- 
pointment, it proved so strong that even the dogs 
did not care to touch it. 

We now returned towards our camp. The 
bay stallion, his wrongs avenged and his ab- 
ducted wives restored to his affectionate keeping, 
kept neighing and tossing up his heels in a state 
of high glee, without, to all appearance, being 
troubled by any misgivings as to whether his re- 
cent ignominious defeat had caused him to forfeit 
the esteem of his family circle. . 

On our way back Isidoro told me that he had 
frequently seen troops of wild horses near St. 
Julian, and that at times the Indians make ex- 
cursions to those regions on purpose to catch 
them. At the foot of the Cordilleras there is a 
smaller, and in every way inferior breed of 
baguals, several tame specimens of which I sub- 
sequently saw amongst the horses of the South- 
ern Tehuelches. 

Having reached the camp, we loaded the 



68 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

pack-horse and resumed our journey southwards. 
We continued to follow the windings of the 
ravine for some distance, and then turning 
abruptly, we rode up one of its steep sides and 
found ourselves on a broad plain, which seemed 
to stretch away interminably, presenting the char- 
acteristics of dreary gloom and hopeless sterility 
I have already described. 

The wind, which down in the ravine we had 
scarcely felt, blew with astonishing violence upon 
the plain ; the gusts were so strong occasionally 
that we could hardly keep our saddles, and at 
intervals we encountered squalls of hailstones of 
unusual size, which, coming full in our faces, 
caused us no little annoyance. It was bitterly 
cold, too, and I was thankful for my capa, which 
kept me tolerably warm, though I had great dif- 
ficulty in keeping it tightly folded round me, for 
if the w r ind could but find hold in the smallest 
crevice, it would blow the capa right off me. In 
fact, it requires a peculiar knack, only to be at- 
tained by long experience, to enable one to wear 
a capa on horseback with ease and comfort. 

Conversation under these adverse circum- 
stances was not very practicable, and we rode on 
for the most part in silence. It was altogether a 



LIFE AMONG THE VSTRICH-HUNTERS. fig 

miserable day, and that tedious plain seemed as 
if it were never going to end. 

We reached its limit rather suddenly, however. 
I had been holding my head down for some time, 
to avoid a passing squall of hailstones, and so 
had fallen insensibly to the rear of my compan- 
ions. On looking up presently I found to my 
astonishment that they had vanished as if by 
magic, and I was apparently alone in the plain. 

I galloped forward, and their sudden disap- 
pearance was soon explained, for in a couple of 
minutes I found myself at the edge of the plain, 
which terminated abruptly, descending almost 
vertically into another plateau, which lay some 
two hundred feet below, down towards which my 
companions were slowly winding their way in a 
zigzag line, as the descent was too sharp for them 
to ride straight down. I had considerable diffi- 
culty in following them, as the violence of the 
wind seemed doubled at this spot, and it was 
only by clinging firmly to the neck of my horse 
that I prevented myself being blown from the 
saddle. In a measure as I descended, however, 
the wind grew less boisterous, and on arriving 
below it entirely ceased. I soon rejoined my 
companions, and presently, on coming to a 



y WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

spring of fresh water, with some good pasture 
near it for the horses, we resolved to go no fur- 
ther that day. 

We accordingly unsaddled and made the usual 
arrangements for the night, which, as the sky 
looked rather threatening, on this occasion in- 
cluded setting up the tent. This precautionary 
measure was a wise one, as towards morning 
there was a slight fall of snow, and when I woke 
up I found the whole landscape whitened over. 

Garcia and the others were of opinion that we 
had better remain where we were for the day, as 
they considered that traveling through the snow 
might be bad for the horses, and, there being 
nothing better for us to do, we crept under our 
furs and went to sleep again till about midday, 
by which time the snow had nearly all melted 
away under the influence of the sun, which shone 
out brightly. Isidoro and Garcia then rode off 
hunting, and Maximo, Guillaume, and I, being 
lazily inclined, remained by the fire, and be- 
guiled an hour or so with breakfast. 

Afterwards they went to fetch fire- wood, whilst 
I amused myself by practicing with the bolas. 
I found it very difficult to use them with any 
precision ; in fact, they always took exactly the 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. ji 

opposite direction to that in which I wished to 
throw them, and finally, in an attempt to " bo- 
lear " a bush, I very narrowly missed poor Max- 
imo, who was just coming up behind me. 

As an instance of the skill which may be ac- 
quired in the use of the bolas, I have several 
times seen Isidoro throw them at some refractory 
colt, at full gallop, with such true aim as to make 
them alight round its hind legs, and effectually 
pinion them, without doing the animal any harm 
whatever — a feat which requires immense confi- 
dence and nerve, as the bolas, which are very 
heavy, being generally made of stone or lead, 
have to be flung with considerable velocity. 

The first hunter to return was Garcia. He 
had killed a female puma, a great prize, as the 
meat is excellent, and especially esteemed dur- 
ing winter and spring months, when it is always 
fat, whereas the ostriches and guanacos are at 
that time generally miserably lean. The brute 
looked very fierce and dangerous; the half- 
opened jaws displayed a row of cruel white 
teeth, which gave its face an uncomfortable ex- 
pression of rage and spite. The fur was of a 
yellowish gray; and the length of the animal 
from tip to tail was about nine feet. 



j 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

The puma abounds in the pampas, where it 
preys on the guanacos and ostriches, lying in 
ambush for them in the ravines near where they 
are in the habit of going to drink. With one 
blow of its huge paw it can kill a full-sized gua- 
naco, but notwithstanding its great strength, the 
Patagonian puma is of very cowardly instincts, 
and if attacked by man, quietly receives its 
death-blow from the balls without any attempt at 
self-defense. If taken young they can be easily 
tamed, and in that state their manners closely 
resemble those of the domestic cat. They are 
very fond of being taken notice of, and will purr 
and stretch themselves under a caressing hand 
like any old tabby. They are extremely playful 
and good-tempered, attaching themselves with 
docility to those with whom they are familiar. 

I was traveling in a steamer once, on board 
of which there was a young puma about two 
months old, which was being sent to the Zoolog- 
ical Gardens. It was a graceful, affectionate little 
animal, and became a great favorite during the 
voyage, relieving many a tedious hour with its 
playful gambols. Its great delight was to lie 
hidden behind a spar, and then suddenly spring 
out on some unwary passer-by, to whose leg it 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 73 

would tenaciously cling until some other object 
attracted its attention. Its inseparable companion 
was a little Scotch terrier, with which it would 
play for hours together, rather roughly some- 
times, it is true, but still without ever showing 
any traces of a treacherous or spiteful disposition, 
though occasionally its temper must have been 
severely tried, as the dog would often seize and 
carry away its dinner — a fighting matter with 
much better-disposed animals than pumas. 

At dinner that evening we ate a side of the 
puma Garcia had killed. After I had overcome 
the repugnance I at first felt at eating the flesh 
of a beast of prey, I found the meat excellent, 
tasting as I thought something like veal. 

We started early the next morning, as we had 
a long journey before us, being anxious to reach 
the Rio Chico, a tributary of the Santa Cruz 
River, before night-time. 

At every step the country across which we 
were now traveling grew more sterile, and after 
about an hour's ride we found ourselves in a re- 
gion of extraordinary barrenness. Not a blade 
of grass was to be seen anywhere, and even the 
miserable scrub of the plains could find no nour- 
ishment in that bleak tract of salt sand and bro- 



74 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; 0R> 

ken scorise. Traces of volcanic action were 
everywhere apparent. Immense bowlders of 
solid rock were scattered here and there in 
chaotic confusion, and on some spots sharp ridges 
of dark porphyry pierced through the soil, tow- 
ering up in fantastic shapes, gloomy and bare. 
It seemed like an unfinished portion of the globe, 
the very skeleton of a landscape. The outlines 
were there, indeed, the framework of the intend- 
ed structure. There were bold hills, sheltered 
valleys, isolated peaks, deep basins ; but over all 
was silence and desolation, all was empty and 
void. The finishing touch had been withheld — 
the last touch which was to have softened and 
modulated those rugged contours, clothing their 
barrenness with verdure, filling the dry basins 
with clear water, and bringing life and gladness 
to what was now lying in sad and eternal death- 
liness. 

Nature must have made Patagonia last of all 
her works, and the horn of Urania, from which 
an abundance of rich gifts had been poured over 
the rest of the world, was well-nigh exhausted 
when that country's turn to be endowed came 
round. There still remained a little bag of grass 
seed, however, and this, with her blessing, the 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 75 

goddess carefully scattered over the length and 
breadth of the land. But little alighted on the 
hills and plains, for the strong pampa winds 
swept it down into the ravines and gulches, un- 
der the shelter of which it took root and flourish- 
ed, affording nourishment to the ostrich and 
guanaco, and preserving the springs of fresh 
water from the scorching rays of the summer's 
sun. 

But one nook had been altogether forgotten 
during the distribution of the scanty remains of 
Urania's gift, and accordingly had been doomed 
to remain desolate and barren to the end of time, 
sustaining no vegetable life, and shunned by all 
living creatures. And through that unfortunate 
region I was now riding, gloomily oppressed by 
the spirit of mournful silence and wild solitude 
which hung over it, whilst my weary gaze sought 
in vain some token of organic existence to re- 
lieve the monotony of lifeless stone and bare sand 
hillocks. 

We rode swiftly, for we all felt the same desire 
to escape as quickly as possible to more cheering 
scenes, but several hours elapsed before the sight 
of an occasional stunted bush or tuft of gray 
grass showed us we were nearing a less inhospi- 
table region. 



76 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

Presently we rode past a long chain of salinas, 
which glittered and sparkled whitely in the sun. 
They were now partially covered with water, but 
in summer it evaporates altogether, leaving a 
crust of salt on the surface of the lake of from 
two to four inches thick. These salinas are met 
with all over the pampas, and from afar often 
deceive the thirsty hunter in search of fresh 
water, by the similarity they present to a sheet 
of the latter when the sun shines on their white 
surfaces. In the depression over which we were 
now riding I counted a succession of more than 
fifty salinas, which stretched away as far as I 
could see towards St. Julian. 

I passed one salina which, at a distance, ap- 
peared to be covered with rose- colored plants. 
On riding nearer I found this delusion to be oc- 
casioned by a flock of flamingos, which were col- 
lected there in great numbers, to all appearance 
in solemn conclave, after the fashion of storks — a 
bird which they also resemble in their general 
build. They let me come close up to them, and 
then, stretching out their long necks, slowly 
glided away, alighting again on another salina a 
little further off. As they flew up I observed 
that the wings were black underneath, in fine 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



77 



contrast to the brilliant hues of the rest of their 
plumage, which is of a bright crimson color and 
very beautiful. One fine, long feather floated 
through the air to my feet, and I picked it up, 
intending to keep it, along with other similar 
trifles, as a relic of my journey. Isidoro, half in 
joke, half in earnest, said the occurrence might 
possibly be an omen of ill luck and bloodshed, 
— a prediction which was subsequently strangely 
verified, though I laughed at it at the time, and, 
of course, thought no more about it. 

By this time we had got into the ordinary 
style of country again — short, undulating plains, 
and ravines with plenty of grass and underwood. 
Several ostriches were caught there, and three 
nests were pillaged, yielding in all some forty 
eggs, which we secured to our saddles and bodies 
in various ways. 

We now approached the limits of the deep 
basin or depression across which we had been 
traveling all day, and were faced by an acclivity 
similar in height and steepness to the one we had 
descended the day previous. In scaling this wall 
I had a slight mishap ; the prolonged strain on 
my saddle caused it to slip back, the girths 
loosened, the saddle rolled round, and, hampered 



j 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

by my capa, I was thrown violently to the 
ground, breaking in my fall four eggs which I 
had previously somewhat imprudently secured 
inside my shirt. Maximo came to my rescue 
and helped me to my feet again. My ribs felt 
very sore, and I was severely bruised on the 
head, but I was glad to come off so cheaply, for 
if the horse had taken fright and run away, en- 
tangled as I was in the saddle- gear and with my 
limbs imprisoned in the folds of the capa, I might 
have incurred considerable risk of being dragged 
over the pampa. We re-adjusted the saddle, I 
remounted, and we started off again, reaching 
the summit of the escarpment without further 
mishap. 

There we found ourselves on another plain, 
across which we journeyed for some time, but 
finding that it was too late to reach the Rio 
Chico that day, we halted for the night under 
shelter of a stout bush of unusual size. 

We had a novel dish that evening in the shape 
of a pair of armadillos, which some one had 
caught during the day, and which Isidoro had 
artistically roasted with hot stones. 

The species of armadillo which inhabits Pata- 
gonia (Dasypus minutus) is much smaller than 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



79 



any of the other varieties known in the Brazils, 
Paraguay, and the northern provinces of Buenos 
Ayres. It is found in great numbers throughout 
the pampas north of the Santa Cruz, though 
south of that river, according to the testimony of 
the Indians, it has never been met with. Why 
the limit of their range is thus sharply defined I 
am not prepared to say, though the phenomenon 
may possibly be accounted for by the fact that 
the temperature on the plains a short distance 
south of the Santa Cruz River is surprisingly 
lower than that of the northern plains, the change 
being far greater than the mere difference in lati- 
tude would warrant. The "mulitos," as the 
Spanish call them, are remarkably good eating, 
and even in the towns they are considered great 
delicacies. In autumn they have a layer of fat 
on their backs of from two to three inches, on 
which they have to draw in winter, as they pass 
that season in a state of torpor, which relieves 
them of the trouble of looking for food. 

Those that we ate on this occasion were rather 
thin, as in that month, September, they com- 
mence to leave their holes, but otherwise the flesh 
was succulent and tender, and tasted very much 
like sucking-pig. 



So WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

The next morning we set out for the Rio 
Chico. On the way we passed several herds of 
guanacos, some of which must have numbered 
more than two hundred head. They seemed very 
shy and disappeared at our approach with great 
rapidity, though now and then one or two more 
courageous than the rest would hang around us, 
almost within reach of the bolas, frisking about 
and executing the most comical antics, as if to 
show their contempt for us and their confidence 
in their own superior speed. 

This self-reliance is not altogether unjustified; 
the guanacos which roam about singly, and 
which show such impertinent audacity, are gen- 
erally tough old males of immense endurance 
and speed, and to overtake them the swiftest 
greyhound would have to do its utmost. 

It is different when a herd is being chased, as 
then each animal tries to push into the middle of 
the flock, and a general scuffle takes place, which 
of course considerably lessens the speed of the 
mass, a fact of which the dogs are perfectly 
aware, inasmuch as they will hardly ever take the 
trouble to chase a single guanaco, unless specially 
ordered to do so by their masters, whereas if a 
herd comes in sight it is difficult to keep them 
from immediately dashing off after them. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. gj 

The guanaco has been well described by Cap- 
tain Musters as having the head of a eamel, the 
body of a deer, the wool of a sheep, and the 
neigh of a horse. The wool is of a reddish 
yellow, intermixed with white in certain parts of 
the body. They are scattered in immense num- 
bers all over Patagonia, and one can never ride 
far without hearing the shrill neighing of the 
sentinels, which always out-flank the main flock 
to give warning of the approach of danger. 
The flesh, when fat, is excellent and closely re- 
sembles beef, but at the season I am writing of it 
is terribly lean and insipid and affords but very 
little nourishment, the only palatable part being 
the head, which we generally roasted under the 
embers, eating it cold. 

We traveled along over the usual succession 
of shingly plain and grassy ravine for some time 
without anything occurring to break the tedium 
of the ride. Presently, however, a little off the 
direction in which we were going I noticed a 
guanaco lying dead, with fifty or more carranchos 
hovering expectantly over it; and as the most 
commonplace incident becomes of deep interest 
to the traveler on the pampas, as to the passenger 
on board a ship, I rode up to have a glance at 
6 



3 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

the dead animal. It must have been just then 
killed, for I found the body still warm, and the 
blood was trickling from a deep gash in its neck. 
I looked round, but I could not see the author of 
the deed anywhere, though I did not doubt but 
that he was prowling near, or else the carranchos 
would already have settled on the carcase. We 
had plenty of other meat, so I merely cut off its 
head, tied it to the saddle, and then rode after 
my companions. 

I had not gone far, however, when my horse 
suddenly stopped, snorting wildly and quivering 
in every limb. I soon discovered the cause of 
its terror. Crouching under a bush, about 
twenty paces ahead of me, was a large puma, 
glaring sullenly at me, with its ugly cat-like head 
resting between its outstretched paws. I urged 
my horse closer towards it, but the frightened an- 
imal would not budge an inch, and as I was not 
within range, I was obliged to dismount. 

Drawing my revolver, I cautiously approached 
the puma till I was within easy distance. I then 
hesitated, not knowing exactly whether to fire or 
not. I had heard a great deal of the cowardice 
of these animals, how you may go close up to 
them and strike them dead with the bolas, with- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



83 



out their offering any resistance; but still, this 
particular puma, I reflected, might happen to be 
an exception to the general rule, and turn out to 
be an unpleasantly brave animal, which might 
possibly resent being fired at, especially if not 
dealt a wound instantaneously fatal. 

However, I finally plucked up my courage, 
took steady aim at the head of the motionless 
beast and fired. It did not stir; I had missed. 
I went nearer and fired again; same result. I 
began to get excited, and went still nearer to the 
unaggressive puma, which was now hardly ten 
paces distant, its eyes gleaming at me with a 
fixed and stolid stare. I fired once more, and 
this time I thought the head twitched. At that 
moment Isidoro, who had heard my shots, came 
up to see what was the matter, and with him, of 
course, came his dogs. They no sooner saw 
the puma than they flew at it, and dragged it 
from under the bush. The reason it had re- 
mained so immovable was immediately ex- 
plained ; the brute was stone dead. On examin- 
ing it I found that two of my bullets had lodged 
in its skull, and another had penetrated its chest, 
my first shot having probably caused instantane- 
ous death. With the help of Isidoro I took off the 



84 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

skin, which was a very fine one, and leaving the 
carcase to the carranchos, we galloped off after 
the rest of the party. 

We reached the Rio Chico at about twelve 
o'clock. The exact site of its source is not 
known, but according to Indian testimony it 
comes from an insignificant stream at a very 
short distance from the spot we were now at. 
Like all rivers in Patagonia, it flows down a 
broad valley, which seems to have been in former 
times the bed of a much broader river than that 
which at present flows through it. Thus the 
valley of the Rio Chico is about three miles 
broad, whilst the river, at the time I am speaking 
of, rather swollen by recent rains, was only some 
300 yards in width. The valley of the Rio Gal- 
legos is much broader even than that of the Rio 
Chico, while one can almost jump over the river 
itself in summer. 

On account of the fine pasturage they afford 
for horses, these valleys are the usual camping- 
places of the Indians, and we were therefore not 
surprised to see several of their tents pitched on 
the other side of the river. I was extremely 
glad of the opportunity thus afforded me of mak- 
ing the acquaintance of these wandering tribes, 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



85 



for whom, having read Captain Musters' " At 
Home with the Patagonians," I had always felt 
a peculiar interest. Captain Musters adopted 
the only plan by which it is possible to obtain a 
thorough insight into the peculiarities of the mo- 
rality and customs of such people, and to dis- 
cover the principles which guide their dealings 
amongst each other and towards strangers. For 
the nonce he forgot that he had ever belonged to 
civilization, and became to all intents and pur- 
poses a Patagonian Indian, living amongst them 
as one of them, sharing their pleasures and hard- 
ships, and doing his duty in the hunting-field or 
in the ball-room with as much zest and earnest- 
ness as if he intended passing his whole exist- 
ence among them, and finally becoming a can- 
didate for some vacant caciqueship. 

By these means he became intimately acquaint- 
ed with their habits and ways, their domestic life, 
their virtues and failings, their loves and their 
hatreds, and was thus enabled thoroughly to un- 
derstand them and appreciate many interesting 
traits in their character which would have escaped 
a less attentive and less conscientious observer. 

When we reached the ford some doubts were 
expressed as to whether it was practicable, the 



S6 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

the river being swollen far beyond its ordinary 
level. Garcia rode cautiously over first, there- 
fore, and on his arriving safely on the opposite 
side, none the worse for a little splashing, the 
rest of us followed, driving the horses in before 
us. The dogs remained behind, setting up a 
most dismal yell as they watched us making our 
way through the water, but finding no one 
offered to carry them over, they at last took heart 
and swam after us. 

Leaving our horses to graze with those of the 
Indians, which were scattered about in knots all 
over the valley, we set off at a gallop towards 
the encampment, on arriving at which we were 
soon surrounded by a crowd of dusky aborig- 
ines, who, to judge by their incessant smiles and 
laughter, must have been exceedingly glad to see 
us. 

Our first care was to set up our tent and care- 
fully stow all our traps and saddle-gear away 
under it, as there are some amongst the In- 
dians whose curiosity prompts them to minutely 
inspect any article one may be careless enough to 
leave within their reach, and whose absence of 
mind is so extreme as to frequently make them 
forget to restore such articles to their rightful 
owners. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



87 



I was then at liberty to examine the chatter- 
ing groups which had gathered round us, watch- 
ing all our doings with the greatest interest, and 
probably criticising my civilized appearance with 
a freedom which, had I understood their lan- 
guage, I might perhaps have thought the reverse 
of complimentary. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE plains of Patagonia, barren as they are, 
afford sustenance to a marvelous profusion 
of animal life, and swarm with countless num- 
bers of ostriches, guanacos, armadillos, pumas, 
foxes and skunks. But they are but sparsely 
peopled by the human race. It may be estimat- 
ed that the human population of that vast terri- 
tory which lies between the Rio Negro and the 
Straits of Magellan barely numbers three thou- 
sand souls, and if the mortality among them con- 
tinues on the same scale as hitherto, it is to be 
feared that in a comparatively short period they 
will have disappeared altogether from off the 
face of the earth, and survive only in memory as 
a sad illustration of the remorseless law of the 
non-survival of the unfitted. 

But at no period of its existence as an habita- 
88 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



8 9 



ble country can Patagonia have been well popu- 
lated ; no people would voluntarily choose it for 
a permanent abode as long as they could range 
unmolested in the more hospitable regions of 
the north, and such tribes as have from time to 
time elected to brave its inclement climate have 
in so doing doubtless only yielded to dire neces- 
sity, finding the elements less formidable to en- 
counter than the unceasing hostilities of more 
powerful tribes. Thus the Tehuelches, as the 
Indians who at present inhabit the southern 
plains are called, have in all probability gradu- 
ally been driven to this extreme corner of their 
continent by the more warlike but intellectually 
inferior races of the north, such as the Arauca- 
nians, the Pampas, and others, who in their turn, 
as civilization advances, may perhaps be forced 
to quit their present rich pasture-grounds and 
moderate climate and fly to the bare plains of 
Santa Cruz and St. Julian, eventually to en- 
counter the same fate of extermination as that 
which now hangs over the doomed Tehuelche 
race. 

The Tehuelches are divided into two tribes, the 
Northern and the Southern. The Northerners 
are the least numerous, but, on the other hand, 



90 



WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 



they have the advantage of being less " civilized " 
than their Southern kindred, who, being fre- 
quently in contact with the settlers of Sandy 
Point, have assimilated not a few of the pleasant 
vices of "los Christianos" as all white men are 
called by them. The Northerners generally pass 
the winter at Santa Cruz, and move as summer 
comes on towards the Cordilleras. The South- 
erners range over the country between Coy Inlet 
and the straits, and now and then pay a visit to 
the settlement of Sandy Point. In customs and 
language there is no difference between these two 
tribes, and in speaking of the Tehuelches I must 
be understood to be referring indiscriminately to 
the Northerners and Southerners. 

Notwithstanding that the exaggerated accounts 
of early travelers as to the stature of the Pata- 
gonians have frequently been contradicted and 
disproved, a great many people seem still to be 
firmly impressed with the idea that the race of 
giants is not yet extinct, and that it has for its 
abode that favored portion of South America 
which the Spaniards christened Patagonia. The 
truth is that as regards height all that can be said 
of the Tehuelches is that they are on the average 
a tall race, varying in stature from, say, five feet 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



91 



ten inches to six feet. Their muscular develop- 
ment and consequent strength, however, are de- 
cidedly abnormal, and in that sense, at all events, 
they cannot be denied to possess one of the most 
important attributes of giants. 

I once witnessed a remarkable feat of strength 
performed by a Northern Tehuelche of the name 
of Koloby. He was leading a horse towards the 
camp by a lasso, when the animal for some rea- 
son or other suddenly stopped short, and obsti- 
nately refused to stir from the spot. After a few 
coaxing but ineffectual tugs at the lasso, Koloby 
gave a short grunt of impatience, and then, tak- 
ing the lasso over his shoulder, bent forward, 
seemingly without effort, and dragged the horse 
by main force for about twenty yards, notwith- 
standing its determined attempts at resistance. 

The Tehuelches are on the whole rather good- 
looking than otherwise, and the usual expression 
of their faces is bright and friendly. Their fore- 
heads are rather low but not receding, their noses 
aquiline, their mouths large and coarse, but their 
teeth are extremely regular and dazzlingly white. 
Their hair, which is long and black, is kept from 
falling over their faces by a fillet tied round the 
head. They have little hair on the face or body, 



g 2 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

and even that they eradicate as much as possible, 
including the eyebrows, — an operation which 
must cause no little pain. Why they do this I 
don't know, except it may be that they consider 
it improves their appearance, in which case it 
seems that in its application to the "poor Indian" 
the saying "77 fant soaffrir pour etre beau " loses 
none of its truth or point. In addition to this 
embellishment, some tattoo their arms or chest, 
but it does not seem to be the general custom. 

Their eyes are small and deeply set ; the prom- 
inence of the cheek-bones gives great breadth to 
their faces. The color of their skin seems to vary 
according to the individual, or rather according 
to the individual's cleanliness, but as far as I could 
ascertain, it is of a reddish brown, running in 
some cases more into a yellowish tinge. Their 
general carriage is extremely graceful and digni- 
fied, and their manners towards strangers and one 
another are polite and deferential, without a trace 
of servility ; in fact, they have a certain well-bred 
air of restraint, which is quite impressive, and one 
never feels inclined to treat them with that famil- 
iarity which is bred of contempt or that conven- 
ient assumption of superiority which the white 
man is so apt to display towards "niggers." 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



93 



I do not wish to incur the charge of attempting 
to revive the exploded legend of the " noble sav- 
age" in favor of the Tehuelche race, but I must 
say that in general intelligence, gentleness of tem- 
per, chastity of conduct, and conscientious behav- 
ior in their social and domestic relations, they are 
immeasurably superior not only to the other 
South American indigenous tribes, but also, all 
their disadvantages being taken into considera- 
tion, to the general run of civilized white men. 
Their natural talents are displayed in a marked 
manner by the rapidity with which they pick up 
a new language, and the ease with which they 
grasp the totally new ideas which the acquiring 
of a complex foreign tongue must necessarily en- 
tail on a race whose original range of thought is 
of a most limited nature. Amongst the Southern 
Tehuelches I met several who spoke Spanish with 
ready ease, notwithstanding that they seldom had 
opportunities of practicing it. There was one 
Indian, who called himself Captain Johnson, who 
surprised me very much when I first met him by 
asking me, with a round British oath, for "a plug 
of tobacco." Further conversation brought out 
that many years before he had lived for a few 
weeks on board an English schooner, and hence 



94 



WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 



his knowledge of the language, which he spoke 
extremely well, considering that he had of course 
never had occasion to keep it up since. Guil- 
laume told me several instances of the ease with 
which the Indians picked up and retained French 
phrases, which at their request he had repeated to 
them. To their many other praiseworthy char- 
acteristics I shall presently revert. 

The dress of the men consists of a chiripa fast- 
ened at the waist by a belt, which is frequently 
richly embossed with silver. The capa, or mantle 
of guanaco furs, already described, completes their 
attire. When on horseback their feet are encased 
in botas de potro ; but for reasons of economy 
they do not wear them at ordinary times. The 
women wear a long calico robe beneath the capa, 
which is fastened at the throat with a silver brooch, 
or a simple wooden skewer, according to the cir- 
cumstances of the individual. Potro boots are a 
luxury reserved for the men. The children, on 
whom most of the silver ornaments of the family 
are lavished, wear a capa, like their elders, and on 
attaining the age of four or five are invested with 
the dignity of a chiripa. 

When the women grow old they become repul- 
sively ugly ; but the young girls are by no means 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



95 



ill-favored, and the looks of even the plainest 
among them are invariably redeemed by the 
bright, smiling expression habitual to them. Their 
hair is worn in plaits, artificially lengthened by 
means of horse-hair ; their complexion, when free 
from paint, is of a ruddy, healthy color ; and their 
eyes, which are shaded with long black lashes, 
are soft and clear. 

Without going so far as to assert that the af- 
faires de coeur of the Tehuelche maidens are al- 
ways strictly platonic, I must say that, according 
to my own observations, and the confirming state- 
ments of others, the relations between the sexes 
are uniformly characterized by a strong sense of 
decency and unimpeachable propriety. Polyg- 
amy is admitted on principle ; but no man may 
marry more wives than he can afford to maintain, 
and there is, therefore, seldom more than one 
mistress to each household. Marriages de con- 
venance are very rare ; but, as a matter of form, 
the bride is purchased from her parents for a cer- 
tain number of mares, or whatever objects her 
lover can afford to give. But as the dowry of the 
girl generally quite compensates for the expense 
her lover has incurred in obtaining her, the trans- 
action must be considered rather as an exchange 



g$ WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

of presents than as a mere unsentimental bargain. 
Out of mere curiosity to learn the technical de- 
tails of Tehuelche marriage-settlements I once 
entered into negotiations with a rich old squaw, 
for the purpose of contracting matrimony with 
her daughter, who was a charming girl of about 
fifteen. The price we finally agreed upon was 
eight mares, a bag of biscuits, and some sugar, 
which I was to procure from Sandy Point. The 
dowry of the daughter consisted in four new 
guanaco mantles. I held out for five, and on my 
remaining inflexible on this point the negotia- 
tions fell through. 

Husband and wife seem always to get on very 
well together; indeed, one of the pleasantest 
traits in the Tehuelche character is the affection 
with which relations regard one another. The 
love of the parents towards their offspring is al- 
most morbid in its intensity. Their grief at the 
decease of an only child frequently manifests it- 
self in the most exaggerated manner. It is not 
unusual in such cases for the parents to burn all 
their belongings, kill all their horses, and reduce 
themselves to a state of utter poverty, — a touch- 
ing proof of the sincerity and depth of their sor- 
row, if not of the soundness of their views on 
practical economy. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



97 



Their indulgence towards their children is un- 
limited. I have never seen a child chided or re- 
monstrated with, whatever mischievous pranks it 
may have been up to, and in all their internal ar- 
rangements the interest of the baby portion of 
the community seems to be the first which is con- 
sulted. For my part, I must say I by no means 
shared in the feelings of the elders with regard to 
their youthful progeny ; on the contrary, I always 
considered the latter as a most unmitigated nui- 
sance. They are dirty and vicious, as mischiev- 
ous as monkeys, and as thievish as magpies. 
The " Artful Dodger" would have had to look to 
his laurels if he had had to enter into competi- 
tion with a young Tehuelche. Their deftness of 
hand, as I have many a time experienced to my 
cost, is remarkable. On one occasion I rode over 
to their camp from Santa Cruz on an English 
saddle, and as I knew that the stirrup leathers, 
which are in great demand for belts on account of 
the buckles, would prove too great a temptation, 
I took care not to leave the saddle at all during 
my short stay, thinking by that means to obviate 
any danger of losing my cherished stirrup leath- 
ers. But even this precaution proved insufficient. 
In an unguarded moment, whilst bending over 
7 



p3 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

my horse's neck in conversation with an Indian, 
who was sitting on the ground below me, by way 
of resting myself a little, I incautiously slipped 
one foot out of its stirrup, and lay out my length 
along the horse's back. I was hardly two min- 
utes in that position, but I was two minutes too 
long. On resuming my seat in the saddle my 
foot sought in vain for the stirrup, and on looking 
down I discovered, to my wrath, that during my 
momentary inattention the stirrup leather had 
quietly been slipped off and made away with. 
Of course I immediately dismounted in a great 
rage and set to to find the thief. After a fruit- 
less search I returned to my horse, and, lo and 
behold, in the meanwhile, the other stirrup leather 
had disappeared ! In my precipitate haste I had 
quite forgotten that whilst I was looking for its 
fellow it might be abstracted as well, and the 
upshot of the whole affair was that with many a 
strong interj ectional reference to my own stupidity, 
I had to ride stirrupless back to Santa Cruz, 
some fifteen miles away. I had no doubt at the 
time, and indeed I subsequently discovered, that 
two youngsters had been the perpetrators of the 
peat theft. 

One would think that under such training, as 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



99 



they grew older, their faults would increase ; but 
just the contrary is the case, and by the time 
they attain their fifteenth- or sixteenth year they 
abandon their brattish ways, and become "re- 
spectable," steady-going members of their com- 
munity. 

The division of labor in a Tehuelche menage is 
perhaps not strictly equitable, for by far the 
greater part of the day's work falls on the fair 
sex. The men go hunting when the larder is 
low, and occasionally, in a dawdling kind of way, 
they mend their riding-gear, or make bolas, lassos, 
etc. ; but they have an insurmountable aversion 
to anything that looks like hard work. The 
squaws, on the other hand, are busy from morn- 
ing till night. They are the hewers of wood and 
the drawers of water, and all the onus of house- 
keeping, breaking up the camp, arranging the 
tents — including, of course, the care of the chil- 
dren, the cuisine, and so Jorth — -is delegated to 
them. When not otherwise employed they sew 
guanaco capas, or weave fillets, and their fingers, 
at all kinds of work, are as nimble as their 
tongues, with which latter they keep up an in- 
cessant chatter, which, however, does not prevent 
them from getting through an astonishing amount 
of work. 



! oo WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

Of their religion little is to be said. They 
recognize a good spirit and a bad spirit (Guali- 
chu); but there is little sincerity or earnestness 
either in their reverence for the one, or in their 
fear of the other. According to the caprice of 
the moment, either of these spirits is most cava- 
lierly treated by them, and the respect they occa- 
sionally profess towards them gives way as often 
as not to indifference, contempt, or anger. The 
fact is, that with the Tehuelches the prime rule 
in life is to take everything as easily as possible, 
to the exclusion of all other considerations, and 
acting on the doctrine of the Epicureans, that it 
is a man's duty to endeavor to increase to the 
utmost his pleasures and diminish to the utmost 
his pains, they are careful not to admit any theo- 
ries which might possibly disturb their peace of 
mind. Thus they are strongly averse to the idea 
of vesting in a supernatural agent the power of 
interfering in their affairs to any great extent, 
arguing that such power, having once been vest- 
ed, it might on a contingency be used detriment- 
ally to their own comfort and interests. On the 
other hand, it could not escape them that very 
often a most convenient excuse for their pecca- 
dilloes was to be found in attributing them to the 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



101 



evil influence of some bad spirit. To avoid the 
dilemma occasioned by the above conflicting con- 
siderations, they accordingly created the Guali- 
chu, a most accommodating devil, who allows 
himself to be ignored or brought forward, as may 
best suit the momentary purpose of his clients. 
The good spirit, for obvious reasons, one hears 
very little about ; the Tehuelche is quite willing 
to take the credit of his good actions on himself 
alone. 

The office of chief or cacique among them is 
not altogether a sinecure ; but its authority is ex- 
tremely limited, being exercised merely in such 
slight matters as the choice of the spot where the 
tribe is to camp, the route to be followed, and so 
forth. The Tehuelches are very jealous of their 
personal liberty ; and complete individual equal- 
ity is the recognized basis of their social and 
political system. Paraphrasing Wordsworth, I 
may say in prose, "A rich man is a rich man to 
them, and he is nothing more." In other words, 
the fact of one of their number possessing forty 
or fifty horses more than his fellows seems to be 
accepted by them as a simple fact, which excites 
neither respect for the possessor nor envy of his 
good fortune. Nor would it for a moment occur 



102 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

to the owner of the forty or fifty horses to fancy 
himself in any way superior to his poorer breth- 
ren. The little credit which wealth, per se y com- 
mands, saves the Indians from a great many of 
the repugnant vices of white men, such as ava- 
rice, jealousy, servility, etc., and keeps up a 
healthy, independent feeling among them, which 
is pleasantly manifested in the politeness and 
kindliness of their personal intercourse. 

They have a peculiar custom, moreover, which 
is well calculated to preserve the existing state 
of things. When an Indian dies, however many 
horses he may possess, they are all killed, and 
his other belongings are scrupulously burned. 
Thus, no family can acquire such a preponder- 
ance of wealth as would enable it in time to ob- 
tain an ascendant influence over and curtail the 
liberties of the rest of the tribe. Whatever the 
defects of this system may be from the political 
economist's point of view, it seems to be very 
well adapted to the desires and circumstances of 
the Tehuelches ; and as an instance of how so- 
cialistic tendencies may be practically modified to 
suit certain exceptional conditions of existence, 
it is perhaps not without some interest. 

If required to distinguish the Tehuelche by a 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



103 



single characteristic epithet, I should call him, 
not the noble, but the happy savage. Far from 
being saturnine or grave, he is as light-hearted 
as a child, all mirth *and contentment, and won- 
derfully easily moved to laughter. Life is, in- 
deed, a very pleasant matter for him. Without 
any exertion on his part being necessary, all his 
wants are supplied in abundance. He has no 
onerous daily drudgery to undergo ; he has no 
enemies to fear ; he is not driven from his hunt- 
ing-grounds to starvation and death, like his 
North American cousins, by the ever-advancing 
white man. He is seldom visited by sickness, 
and his life is unusually prolonged. That he has 
absolutely no troubles I will not affirm, but if he 
has any he certainly takes them very lightly. 

To conclude these few remarks on the Tehuel- 
che race, in reviewing their characteristics it is 
impossible not to award them a high rank in the 
list of uncivilized nationalities. To admit that 
they have many faults, is, after all, merely saying 
that they are human ; but these faults are re- 
deemed by many unusual excellences. They 
are good-natured, hospitable, and affectionate ; 
their instincts are gentle ; violence and ferocity 
are foreign to their nature; and though not 



1 04 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; 0R t 

invariably veracious nor strictly honest, if they 
think you trust them they will take care not to 
deceive you. Their one great failing is their 
addiction to rum, to whose fatal agency the rapid 
decrease in their numbers, and the consequent 
fast-approaching extinction of their race, must be 
ascribed. 

But to return to my narrative. Our tent hav- 
ing been set up, and all our saddle-gear stowed 
away, I strolled into the Indian camp, followed 
by the chattering crowd which had come out to 
meet us. My curious glances at these children 
of the desert were certainly repaid with interest ; 
and they subjected my person and belongings to 
the closest scrutiny. The texture of my coat was 
carefully examined, and appeared to give rise to 
a lengthy discussion, which was carried on with 
more zeal and earnestness than the merits of the 
subject would seem to warrant, and nothing but 
a good stare of several minutes' duration at my 
face seemed to satisfy even the least curious 
among them. 

The camp was composed of five toldos, or 
tents, each tent containing on the average about 
twenty-five souls. These toldos are very prac- 
tically constructed, and notwithstanding their 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



I05 



formidable size they are set up or taken down 
by the squaws in a surprisingly short space of 
time. A covering made of guanaco skins is 
drawn over a rough frame-work of wood, consist- 
ing of a double row of stakes and cross-beams, 
lashed together with thongs of guanaco hide. 
The front of the tent is generally open, but it can 
be closed whenever occasion requires. The in- 
terior is divided into partitions, each inmate hav- 
ing his own bunk, where he sleeps and where his 
gear and chattels are stowed away when not in 
use. 

I entered one of these tents and looked about 
me. In the front part there were three or four 
small fires, round each of which sat a circle of In- 
dians, who were warming their toes and smoking 
or taking mate. The squaws were all hard at 
work, sewing capas, weaving fillets, or tying up 
bundles of ostrich feathers. At my approach 
they stopped working and broke into a chorus 
of guttural commentaries on my appearance, in- 
terspersed with a great deal of noisy laughter, 
which they kept up till I left the tent. Little 
children and dogs were sprawling about the place 
in all directions, apparently on very good terms 
with each other — a dog not unfrequently gnaw- 



I0 5 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

ing at one end of a piece of meat, off the other 
end of which a young Tehuelche hopeful was 
making his dinner. In another corner was a 
group deeply immersed in the chances and 
changes of a game of cards. Some of the In- 
dians are inveterate gamblers, and play for very 
high stakes indeed. It is not an uncommon 
thing for a " plunger " to risk all his horses and 
his saddle-gear, knife and bolas to boot, on the 
chances of a single game. 

We visited all the tents, and then went back 
to enjoy a pipe by our own fireside. We had 
not been long seated when quite a deputation of 
pretty young squaws arrived to interview us. 
They bashfully sat down at some distance from 
our fire, and for a time did nothing but giggle 
and look shy. At last one of them, the prettiest 
(artful daughters of Eve !), after a great deal of 
argument and some persuasive pushing, seemed 
to consent to become the spokeswoman of the 
party, and taking courage, came boldly up to us, 
and producing a plate from under her capa, with 
a very engaging smile she held it out to me, re- 
peating the word "Azucar" several times in a 
pleading, coaxing tone, which it was impossible 
to resist. I gave her some sugar and biscuit, 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



10/ 



with which she returned to her companions, 
seemingly very much pleased. After having sat 
for a few minutes longer, just for politeness' sake, 
as it were, they got up and went back to their 
homes. They must have reported favorably on 
the results of their expedition, for they had not 
been gone long when another lot arrived, who 
also wanted azucar. We had just doled out a 
small portion to them, when still another crowd 
came down upon us, composed chiefly of elderly 
squaws, each with a plate and such a cheerful de- 
sire to see it filled with sugar, that it became 
necessary to restrain our generous instincts, and 
stow away the sugar-bags in the depths of our 
tent. Finding us inexorable, the elders soon 
took their departure in great good-humor, and 
seemingly as happy as if they had got all they 
wanted. 

We were favored with a great many visits dur- 
ing dinner, and at one time we were the centre 
of a circle of men, women, and children, two 
rows deep, who were incessant in their demands 
for biscuit, sugar, or something, but so calmly 
indifferent under the inevitable refusal with 
which, in self-defense, we were obliged to meet 
all their supplications, that it seemed they really 



1 08 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA. 

did not care whether they got anything given to 
them or not. Post-prandially I mused whether, 
after all, they had not the advantage over me. 
It is true I had "the cakes and ale"; but then, 
on the other hand, to make matters even, they 
had the finely balanced temperament which ena- 
bles them to bear the want of those luxuries with 
the most perfect equanimity. 

After dinner Garcia sat % down to play cards 
with an Indian. I watched him lose successively 
his bolas, his lasso, his knife, and his saddle, and 
when I went to bed he was just commencing an- 
other game, for which the stakes were a horse 
a side. I fully expected to wake up in the morn- 
ing and find that he had lost his whole troop, but 
he was not so unfortunate, and when they finally 
left off playing he was only a pair of bolas to the 
bad. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE next morning, having said good-bye to 
Isidoro, who was stopping some days with 
the Indians before coming down to Santa Cruz 
to accompany me to Sandy Point, we started off 
at a brisk gallop, which, in about three hours, 
brought us to the broad valley down which the 
Santa Cruz River rolls its rapid and tortuous 
course. 

The weather was already sensibly colder than 
at St. Julian. On our road we encountered sev- 
eral snow and hailstorms, and were therefore not 
sorry when we at last arrived in front of Pavon 
Island, where there is a small house, built many 
years ago by an Argentine, who lived there for 
the purpose of trading with the Indians — a busi- 
ness still carried on by its present inmate, Don 
Pedro Defour. 
109 



j j WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

On hearing our shouts, the inmates of the 
island, i, e. y Don Pedro and his peon, came over 
to us in a small boat, in which our effects and 
persons were safely transported to the island. 
The horses and dogs had to swim over as best 
they could, and a very hard and cold job they 
must have found it, as the current of the river 
runs with extreme velocity, something over six 
miles an hour. 

The house into which Don Pedro gave us a 
hearty welcome was built of adobe and stones, 
and contained two dwelling-rooms, a kitchen, 
and a store-room. There was another smaller 
house on the Island used as a store-room for the 
sugar, biscuit, aguadiente, etc., which Don Pedro 
barters with the Indians for guanaco capas and 
ostrich feathers. 

In the long grass behind the house a troop of 
horses was grazing, together with four or five 
fine sheep, with which, judging by their splendid 
condition, the pasturage of Patagonia evidently 
agreed. A pig was grunting and clamoring 
greedily for food in a pen hard by ; ducks, pig- 
eons, and other poultry were pecking about the 
yard ; a thrush was singing in a cage hung up 
outside the house, and altogether there was quite 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



Ill 



a homely, civilized look about the place, which I 
should not have expected to find, considering 
that it is the only fixed human habitation in that 
immense desert, which extends for a distance of 
some seven hundred miles, from Chubut to 
Sandy Point, — a desert whose area is twice that 
of Great Britain, and whose only inhabitants are 
a few ostrich-hunters and Indians. 

Pending Isidoro's arrival I made several excur- 
sions in the neighborhood of the Island, amongst 
others one to the port of Santa Cruz, where in 
the hollow of a sheltered ravine stands the settle- 
ment of M. Rouquand ; the houses, of which 
there are several, built of timber brought from 
Buenos Ayres for the purpose, I found to be lit- 
tle the worse for wear or weather. 

The canon where these houses stand is still 
called " Les Misioneros," for it was there that 
some missionaries resided in 1863, who labored 
for a time at the attempted conversion of the 
Tehuelches to Christianity, without, however, 
meeting with the success their endeavors de- 
served. 

It is a pity that M. Rouquand's courageous 
attempt at colonizing that desert place and 
founding an industry, whose success would have 



112 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



been an incentive to further enterprise, should 
have been thwarted by Chili having taken um- 
brage at his occupying a miserable piece of 
ground, of no possible value to anybody, with- 
out having previously gone through the formality 
of asking their ratification of the concession 
granted him by the Argentine Government. 

The port of Santa Cruz is formed by the con- 
fluence of the river of that name and its tribu- 
tary, the Rio Chico, which at this point expands 
into a broad bay, capable of affording shelter to 
a number of ships, and of easy access from 
the ocean, there being about fifty feet of water 
over the bar at high tide. 

The river Santa Cruz varies in breadth from 
400 yards to nearly a mile, and runs along a * 
winding valley, which extends in a direct line to 
the westward. In 1834 an expedition under 
Admiral Fitzroy, composed of three light boats 
manned by eighteen sailors, started up the river, 
with the object of ascertaining its source, but 
having ascended a distance of 140 miles from 
the sea, and 240 by the course of the river, want 
of provisions obliged him to turn back, espe- 
cially as, finding no diminution in the volume of 
its waters, he inferred that its upper course must 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. I T 3 

be along the base of the Andes, from north to 
south, and that its source must probably be near 
that of the Rio Negro, in lat. 45 ° S. 

In this conjecture he was at error, for in 1877 
Dr. F. Moreno successfully determined the 
source of the Santa Cruz as being taken from 
a lake situated in lat. 50 14' S., and long. 71 
59/ W., some miles from lake Viedma, with 
which, however, it has no visible communi- 
cation This fine sheet of water measures 
thirty miles from east to west, and ten miles 
at its greatest breadth ; its depth Dr. Moreno 
was unable to ascertain — with a line of 120 feet 
he could find no bottom at a short distance from 
the shore. 

According to the same authority the greatest 
depth of the river is seventy feet, but the rapid- 
ity of the current, in some places as much as fif- 
teen miles an hour, must have prevented reliable 
soundings being taken. 

Near Lake Viedma is a volcano, the Chalten, 
which, according to the Indians, still throws out 
quantities of ashes. At the time Dr. Moreno 
was there a column of smoke was issuing from 
its crater. 

The country around Santa Cruz River diners 
8 



1 1 4 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

in no way from that I had already traversed, one 
of the peculiarities of Patagonian landscape be- 
ing its complete sameness. The plains, which 
occupy the greater portion of the country, ex- 
tend along the Atlantic Ocean ; the line separat- 
ing them from the fertile mountain regions is- 
extremely sharply defined. Beginning at Cape 
Negro, Magellan Straits, lat. 53° S. and long. 75 ° 
5c/ W., it runs thence west-north-west to the 
north-eastern extremity of Otway Water, fol- 
lowing the channels of Fitzroy Passage, and the 
northern shores of Skyring Water to long. 72 
W., and then extends along the eastern shores of 
Obstruction Sound and Kirke Water, running 
then due northward towards Lake Viedma. 
These plains rise almost uniformly 300 feet high, 
one above another, like terraces, traversed occa- 
sionally by ravines and flat-bottomed depressions, 
which latter frequently contain salt lakes. The 
formation of the country is tertiary, resting on 
porphyry and quartz, ridges of which often pro- 
trude through the surface. Near long. 70 W. 
the plains are capped with a layer of lava about 
a hundred miles in width. 

Darwin accounts for the regularity with which 
the plains rise one over the other by the supposi- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



"5 



tion that the land has been raised in a mass from 
under the sea, the upheaving movement having 
been interrupted by at least eight long periods of 
rest, during which the sea ate deeply back into 
the land, forming at successive levels the long 
lines of escarpments which separate the different 
plains. 

In that strange country the vegetable kingdom 
is as little varied as the aspect of the landscape ; 
from Chubut to Sandy Point, from the sea-coast 
to the Cordilleras, one meets the same few species 
of miserable stunted bushes and coarse grasses. 

The cut (p. 116) shows the formation of the 
country at Port St. Julian 1 : 

Of bushes, the most frequent are the jume 
(Salicemia) and the calafate (Berberis axifolia). 
The former plant is remarkably rich in soda, as 
will be seen by the following analysis of its ash : 

Chloride of sodium - 19*38 

Sulphate of lime - 9-50 

Carbonate of magnesia - - 1*94 

Phosphate of potash - - - 12*15 

Carbonate of potash - - - 7-50 

Silicate of soda - 7-80 1 

Carbonate of soda - 4173 

ioo-oo 
1 From a perforation made by E. de Ville Massot, C.E. 



Hg WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 



* 







Sand. 

Red clay, quantities of shells 
and macranchenia bones. 



Layers of porphyry pebbles, 
alternating with porous 
sandstone. 



Fossil mass in three layers, 
consisting chiefly of oysters 
and pecten. 

Porous sandstone, numbers of 

scutella shells. 
Green sandy clay, containing 
broken masses of chalk and 
quantities of Ostrea Patagon- 
ica. 
Sand. 

Level of the 
sea. 



Though they are so little favored by nature, 
still I must confess that in the sober-hued Pata- 
gonian landscapes, with their grave breadth and 
stern severity of outline, and in the grand mo- 
notony of solemn silence and solitude prevading 
their barren plains, there is something which has 
left a far deeper impression on my mind than has 
the brightest and most varied tropical scenery. 
Standing in the midst of one of those seemingly 
endless plains, one experiences an indefinable feel- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



117 



ing of awe, akin to that which the contemplation 
of the ocean produces, only, perhaps, more im- 
pressively grand, for the ocean is ever noisy and 
restless, the pampa eternally silent and still. 

During my stay at Santa Cruz nothing of im- 
portance occurred, if I may except a ball given 
by the Indians at the Rio Chico in honor of 
somebody's marriage, or funeral, I forget which. 
An Indian who came to the island to get the 
rum, which is a sine qua non at all their enter- 
tainments, invited us to assist at the ball — an of- 
fer which we readily accepted. 

On arriving at the camp a very lively scene 
presented itself to our eyes. As is customary on 
such occasions, several mares had been killed, 
and roasting and boiling was going on at numer- 
ous fires. Every one was feasting in the greatest 
good humor, which on our approach was further 
heightened, scouts having already brought the 
news that we were coming with the aguadiente. 

The advent of the latter was greeted with loud 
acclamations ; some of the older men gathered 
round the cask, which was speedily tapped, and 
then with great unction and solemnity they pro- 
ceeded to taste the liquor, in order to see whether 
it had been overwatered. Several decided grunts 



1 1 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

of satisfaction, however, showed that these aged 
fathers approved of its strength, whereupon a 
general and doubtless equitable distribution of the 
spirit took place, and before long the whole camp, 
men, women, and children, had ample opportuni- 
ties for judging of its merits for themselves. 

Presently a dance was organized. The men 
who took part in it were all specially painted for 
the occasion, and wore long feathers on their 
heads. The dance itself was a monotonous jig, 
executed to the excruciating music of various 
drums or tom-toms. The women, strange to 
say, do not dance ; at least, they did not as long 
as they were sober. 

As the evening wore on, after vast quantities 
of meat had been consumed and innumerable 
dances has been performed, special attention be- 
gan to be paid to the aguadiente, and the fun 
consequently soon began to get very fast and very 
furious. 

Long before midnight every one was more or 
less drunk, and the ball which had commenced 
with becoming order and solemnity had now de- 
generated into a wild orgy. The flames from the 
different fires, strangely blended with the pale 
moonlight, cast a lurid glare on the dusky bodies 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



119 



and painted faces of the revelers, who, mad with 
excitement and drink, were dancing, singing, and 
whooping in deafening concert. A more grew- 
some scene it were hard to imagine. It seemed 
as if the imps of darkness were celebrating their 
unearthly rites in this desert spot, and I half ex- 
pected, at any moment, to see the whole crew 
vanish, with a flash and a bang, into the bowels 
of the earth, leaving the orthodox smell of sul- 
phur behind them. 

Nothing of the sort occurred, however, though 
I presently received a shock almost as startling as 
any supernatural event could have been. An old 
squaw, who was painfully of this world and the 
vanities thereof, and who had previously been ad- 
dressing me for some time in the most eloquent 
of gutturals, finding that nothing could melt my 
icy demeanor, as a last resource suddenly threw 
her arms round my unsuspecting neck and 
hugged me in a greasy embrace. 

With great difficulty I managed to free myself, 
whereupon I ran away towards some other part 
of the camp to escape further annoyance. Had 
this old beldame been acquainted with woman's 
privileges on such occasions, she would have 
known that under the circumstances the correct 



1 20 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

thing to have done was to have fainted or become 
hysterical. But nothing could have been further 
from the thoughts of this unenlightened savage — 
the impulse of her untrained mind being to run 
after me as hard as her legs could carry her. 
And the rest of the Indians, with one of those 
sudden whims drunken people are liable to, took 
it into their heads to join in the chase, and I soon 
had the whole crowd shrieking and howling at my 
heels. What their intentions were I don't know, 
nor did I feel inclined to discover; fortunately I 
reached my horse, which I had left ready saddled, 
before they came up to me, and galloping swiftly 
away, I soon left them behind me. 

I was presently joined by Garcia and the oth- 
ers, who had taken the same opportunity to es- 
cape in order to avoid the rows with which these 
balls frequently wind up. They are not often at- 
tended by actual bloodshed, however, as the 
squaws, with naive foresight, generally hide all 
weapons before the ceremonies commence. We 
reached Santa Cruz shortly after day-break, and 
so ended my first experience of a Tehuelche 
merry-making. 

I called at the camp the next day to pay my 
visite de digestion, and made a point of going to 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. I2 I 

the tent where the old squaw, who was so near 
becoming teterrima causa belli, abode. She had 
a bad headache and looked very demure and 
penitent. I rallied her with smiles, and attempted, 
by my assiduous attentions, to make up for my 
discourteous behavior of the previous evening. 
But she took no notice of me, and received all 
my overtures with the utmost indifference. It 
was a case of 

"The devil was sick : the devil a saint would be." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SHORTLY after, on the 2d of October, Isidoro 
came over to Pavon Island, with his horses 
and some 250 lbs. of ostrich feathers sewn up in 
hides, which he was going to take down to Sandy 
Point to barter, and I accordingly made the nec- 
essary arrangements for accompanying him. 

Never was a more unlucky trip commenced 
under more unfavorable auspices. 

I was extremely unwell, and my indisposition 
increased with every hour. Isidoro, in crossing 
over to the island, had lost his whip in the river, 
and he seemed to consider this a sure omen of 
misfortune. The mishap threw quite a gloom 
over his mind, and he almost decided on giving 
up the journey altogether. With great difficulty 
I persuaded him to relinquish this intention, 
though I little thought, as I did so, that I was in- 
directly drawing him to his ruin. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



123 



The weather, too, was unpropitious. Twice 
heavy showers of rain made us turn back when 
on the point of starting. We had already unsad- 
dled our horses and put off our departure till the 
next day; but towards midday the sun again 
shone out, and that finally decided us to make a 
definite start. 

As we calculated that our journey to Sandy 
Point would last about eight days, we took but 
few provisions ; and in order to spare the pack- 
horse as much as possible, we left our tent be- 
hind, trusting to the weather not to be too severe 
upon us. The cavalcade consisted of Isidoro, 
Guillaume, and myself, twenty-eight horses, and 
five dogs. 

Having said good-bye to Don Pedro, Garcia, 
and Maximo, who were remaining at Santa Cruz, 
we mounted our horses, forded the river, and got 
under route. 

We had not gone far when the weather again 
changed for the worse. A drizzling sleet — half 
rain, half snow — began to fall, and a thick mist 
settled down on the hills, giving an indescribably 
mournful appearance to the at all times gloomy 
country. 

We rode along in the lowest of spirits and in 



1 24 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

the midst of a cheerless silence, broken only by 
the patter of the rain or the splashing of our 
horses' hoofs over the marshy ground. As we 
went on my headache grew more and more vio- 
lent, and every movement of the horse made me 
wince with pain ; but not wishing to turn back 
now that we were once off, I bore up as well as I 
could for several hours, till at last, burning with 
fever and thoroughly exhausted with the efforts I 
had made to subdue my sufferings, I fairly began 
to reel in my saddle, and, finding it impossible to 
continue any longer on horseback, I called out to 
my companions to halt. 

Although we were just in the middle of a bare 
plain, there was fortunately a little grass growing 
round the borders of a small sheet of water near 
where I dismounted, or otherwise, on account of 
the horses, we should have been obliged to con- 
tinue till we got to the next ravine, which was 
still a considerable distance off 

They made a bed for me under a low bush, and 
I was glad to be able to lie down. I suffered in- 
tensely all through the night, tossing sleeplessly 
about, and longing for dawn to appear. 

The morning found me in such a state that, 
much to my own and my companions' regret, it 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



125 



was quite impossible to continue the journey, 
though, had I foreseen the consequences of that 
one day's delay, I would have gone on even if I 
had had to be lashed to the saddle. 

It was altogether a very miserable time. It is 
pleasant enough to roam over the pampa when 
you are strong and well, and can enjoy a good 
gallop after an ostrich in that pure, inspiriting 
air, when the coarsest food seems delicious, and 
you can sleep as soundly on the hardest couch as 
on the softest feather bed ; but it is another thing 
when you are sick and in pain, and miss the 
darkened room, the tempting viands, the cooling 
drinks, and the thousand devices which make 
sickness less trying — when, instead, you have to 
face the weary pangs of illness, exposed alter- 
nately to the glaring sunshine and the cold rain 
showers, stretched on the bare ground, a hard 
saddle for your pillow, a miserable bush your sole 
shelter against the cutting wind ; then, like me, 
you will probably lose a little of your enthusiasm 
for the romantic life of the pampa, and sigh for 
the comforts of humdrum civilization. 

The next day my anxiety to reach Sandy 
Point as early as possible urged me to declare 
that I felt well enough to continue the journey, 



! 26 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

and enabled me to support the unintermitting 
pains the movement of the horse inflicted on my 
sore body, which, without the assistance of so 
strong a motive, I should hardly have been able 
to do. 

However, I gradually got better, and by the 
time we reached Coy Inlet, which was on the 
fourth day after leaving Santa Cruz, I felt all 
right again. We found Coy Inlet River rather 
swollen, but the ford was still quite passable, 
from which circumstance we concluded that that 
of the River Gallegos would be equally so — a 
matter of congratulation for us, as at that time of 
the year the snows melt in the Cordilleras, and 
the rivers are frequently impassable for several 
days together. The weather, too, had been fine, 
as no more rain had fallen since the day of our 
starting ; the rain, as we had no tent, was always 
our bugbear, and before going to bed at night- 
time, the last topic of conversation was invariably 
the weather, for of all discomforts having to pass 
the night in drenched bedding is certainly the 
most unbearable. 

We were in high spirits over that evening's 
supper, and already began calculating how many 
nights we had yet to pass before we should be 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



127 



able to go to sleep, heedless of wind or rain, 
under roof in Sandy Point. It was the last 
cheerful evening we were to pass for a long time 
to come, though we little dreamed it. 

The following morning we started for our next 
stage, Rio Gallegos, which is about fifty miles 
from Coy Inlet. 

The pace we traveled at was a kind of amble, 
half trot, half canter, though occasionally, when 
the nature of the ground we were riding over 
permitted, we would break into an easy gallop. 
The horses of Patagonia are remarkable for their 
endurance ; seventy or eighty miles a day over 
that most trying country, with its rapid succes- 
sion of steep escarpments, seems nothing to them, 
and if at the end of the day's journey an ostrich 
starts up, they will answer to the spur and dash 
away after it as fresh and as gamely as if they 
had just been saddled. 

The guanacos seemed more numerous than 
ever in the plains we were now crossing, some 
herds which swept past us I think must have 
numbered quite six or seven hundred head. 
They gave us far more trouble than we gave 
them, for every now and then the dogs, who 
with difficulty could keep cool in the presence of 



1 2 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

such abundance of game, would make a dash at 
some peculiarly tempting quarry, only to be 
brought back to their masters' heels after much 
whistling and shouting, thereby causing consid- 
erable delay in our onward progress. 

On this day I was particularly struck with the 
change in the temperature, which had been grad- 
ually growing colder since we left Santa Cruz, 
and which was now already unpleasantly raw and 
severe. Over the plain, too, there was a keen 
wind blowing, which seemed to go right through 
one, and we were glad when we at last reached a 
long ravine called the Ravine of the Squaws, 
which leads down from the plains into Gallegos 
valley. It bears this name because, when coming 
from Coy Inlet, the Indian women always enter 
the valley by that route. As they then form in 
single file, the hoofs of so many horses following 
in each other's wake, have gradually worn sev- 
eral deep but narrow trails into the soil. The 
men ride down anywhere, without reference to 
the movements of the squaws, who always ap- 
proach their camps from exactly the same points, 
thus forming in time these trails in the vicinity. 
The Indians change their camps with tolerable 
regularity according to the time of the year. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. i2 g 

They generally pass the winter together in Coy 
Inlet or Gallegos valley, and in spring, after the 
young guanaco-hunting is over, they break up 
and disperse, some going to the Cordilleras, oth- 
ers to Santa Cruz, and others again to Sandy 
Point, though the latter settlement is never hon- 
ored with their presence long, as there is not suf- 
ficient pasturage for the horses in that region, 
and the dogs, too, have to subsist on very short 
rations, as ostriches are rather scarce in the vicin- 
ity of Sandy Point, and guanacos do not range 
so far south. 

Presently a turn of the ravine brought us in 
full view of the valley, though the river itself 
was as yet invisible. A few minutes would now 
settle all doubts as to the state of the ford. We 
broke into a gallop, craning our necks anxiously 
to get a glimpse of the water, in rather dubious 
suspense. It was of material importance for me 
to take the steamer of the 15th of that month, 
and if the river was unfordable I knew we might 
have to wait for at least eight days before the 
waters would subside, and that delay would cause 
me to lose my steamer. 

Suddenly Isidoro, who was some way ahead, 
drew in his reins and stopped short, turning 
9 



! 3 o WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

round with a look of blank dismay on his brown 
face, which told but too plainly that our worst 
fears were realized. With drooping reins we 
rode slowly on till we got to the river, now no 
longer the shallow stream which in summer one 
can wade over knee- deep, but a broad torrent, 
which eddied, swirled, and foamed as it dashed 
rapidly over its stormy bed through banks which 
were already growing too narrow for its swollen 
waters. In the middle we could still see a single 
tuft of long grass, which was bending with the 
current, and this, Isidoro told me, grew on a lit- 
tle island, which, when the river is fordable, is 
several feet above the water's level. Twenty- 
four hours ago it had doubtless been high and 
dry ! We had arrived just a day too late — the 
day lost on account of my illness ! 

We stood for some time in silence, staring 
blankly at the obstacle which had suddenly 
sprung up to bar our progress, with a feeling of 
utter disgust and helplessness ; and then, the first 
shock of the disappointment over, we began to 
discuss the chances in favor of a speedy fall of 
the water. Isidoro was of opinion, from previ- 
ous acquaintance with the river at that season, 
that in eight days at the most it would have sunk 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



131 



to its ordinary level, two or three consecutive days 
of frost being quite sufficient to arrest the thaw- 
ing of the snows on the Cordilleras, and to cause 
the river to fall as rapidly as it had risen. 

But even eight days seemed a long time to look 
forward to ; eight days to be passed in tiresome 
inaction and constant exposure to the weather, 
and we now bitterly regretted not having brought 
the tent with us. Our provisions, too, had only 
been calculated for a ten days' trip, and were al- 
ready almost exhausted. Though, of course, we 
need never want for meat, still lean meat without 
salt or any farinaceous adjunct is not the kind of 
diet to keep up one's strength in cold weather, 
and under all sorts of exertions and hardships. 
All these disagreeables, however, seemed slight 
ones, compared with the misfortune of having 
lost the steamer of the 15 th, by which, for press- 
ing reasons, I ought to have immediately pro- 
ceeded to Buenos Ayres. There was now no 
other chance of leaving Sandy Point till the 30th. 
Isidoro, too, had some reason to be concerned at 
the delay, for if he did not reach the settlement 
soon, he knew the price of feathers would have 
fallen considerably, and he would make but a bad 
bargain. Altogether it was with heavy hearts 



! 3 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

that we slowly turned from the river in search 
of some suitable spot for camping at. In that 
respect we were unfortunate also, not being able 
to find a sheltering bush anywhere. Gallegos is 
the favorite camping-place of the Indians during 
several months of the year, and consequently any 
bushes which may formerly have existed in the 
immediate neighborhood of the valley had long 
been broken up by the squaws for fire-wood. 
Finally, we had to camp on the open, about three 
miles from the river, sheltered slightly on one side 
by the tall escarpment which bounds one side of 
the valley, but exposed on all others to whatever 
wind might choose to blow, and if it should hap- 
pen to rain we had of course no means of keep- 
ing anything dry. 

Another inconvenience of not having some 
bush to camp under was that the fire was com- 
pletely at the mercy of the wind, and flared away 
without emitting any warmth, blinding those who 
sat round it with smoke, and making it very dim- 
cult to cook anything properly. With the pack- 
ages containing Isidoro's feathers we managed to 
rig up a kind of make-shift to obviate this diffi- 
culty, and then we all three set about looking for 
fire-wood, to collect which we had to wander 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



133 



about for a long time, as the whole country round 
seemed to have been swept bare of that necessary 
by the Indians. 

We were not very cheerful over our dinner that 
evening, as may be imagined. The fire burned 
badly, the air was cold and damp, and soon after 
our meal we rolled ourselves in our furs and 
prepared to pass the first of the many nights we 
were fated to sleep through on the banks of the 
River Gallegos. 



CHAPTER IX. 

MY first thought on waking the next morning 
was, of course, the river. During the night, 
in a moment of wakefulness, a steady rumbling 
noise, the rush of distant water, had struck on 
my listening ear, and I was accordingly prepared 
to find a further rise in the river at daylight. 
But the sight which now met my gaze took me 
by surprise, notwithstanding. The whole of the 
lower- lying portion of the valley, as far as the eye 
could reach, was one sheet of water, and the flood 
was almost visibly rising towards those parts which 
yet remained dry. The river itself was no longer 
distinguishable, being confounded with the gen- 
eral mass of water, but we could plainly hear the 
dull roar of its mighty current, which was still 
sweeping down with unabated force, bearing on 
its curling waters huge trunks of trees, which per- 
134 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 235 

haps but the day before had been torn from the 
distant Cordilleras. 

On account of the high position of our camp 
we were, as yet, far from the flood, though, if it 
continued to rise as rapidly as hitherto, we might 
soon have to move further on. 

Isidoro, too, was quite aghast at the dimen- 
sions the inundation was assuming. He had 
never seen the river so swollen before, and began 
seriously to doubt whether in a fortnight even 
we should be able to cross over, as there was no 
knowing how long the rise would continue. The 
snow-fall of the past winter had been heavier 
than any of the oldest Indians could remember, 
and it might reasonably be supposed that the 
spring floods would be proportionately unusual in 
volume and duration. 

We passed all that day in gloomy forebodings, 
watching the progress of the water. At night- 
time it was still steadily rising. The following 
morning we found the flood had risen to within 
fifteen feet of our camp ; but we had the satisfac- 
tion of finding that it was already abating, for 
during the night it had been several feet higher, 
as evinced by the marks left on the grass. In- 
deed, all day it kept on falling, and so rapidly 



1 3 g WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

that we commenced to speculate on whether the 
river might not eventually subside as quickly as 
it had risen, and allow us to cross over, after all, 
within the eight days we had from the first con- 
sidered as the probable duration of our enforced 
stay at Gallegos. 

The next day again brought despondency. 
The water seemed to have remained stationary 
during the night, and there was a change for the 
worse in the weather. The thick mist which had 
accompanied day-break resolved itself, as the 
morning wore on, into a steady, heavy rain-fall, 
which seemed grimly resolved to reduce us to 
the last stage of misery and discomfort. 

We covered up our furs with the packages of 
feathers, so as, if possible; to have something dry 
for bed-time ; and then cowered round the droop- 
ing fire in resigned helplessness, whilst it rained 
and rained down upon us with merciless perti- 
nacity. 

There is nothing so trying as having to sit 
hour after hour in dejected silence, exposed to a 
cold rain-storm, which you know may possibly 
last for days, and from which you have abso- 
lutely no shelter, feeling, as time goes on, the 
damp gradually creeping through your clothes, 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



137 



till it at last reaches the skin and chills you to 
the bone, while occasional rills of water run off 
your back hair and trickle icily down your shiv- 
ering neck, till you are thoroughly drenched and 
numbed and cramped with cold. 

We passively sat shivering in this wretched 
plight till long after noon, getting up now and 
then to have a look at the weather or to stretch 
our stiffened limbs. At last the clouds began to 
break up, the storm collected its dying force in 
one last fierce down-pour, and then ceased alto- 
gether, giving us just time to dry our clothes and 
bodies with the aid of a good fire before night 
came on. 

The days dragged their slow length along, and 
at last a week, which, in the weariness of eter- 
nally watching and waiting, seemed more like a 
month, had gone past without any signs of a 
speedy abatement in the height of the river. 
The waters had fallen, it is true, and were still 
falling, but how slowly and sluggishly ! 

Day after day I used to climb up the tall 
escarpment bounding the northern plain, from 
the top of which a good view was to be obtained 
of the valley, which was now one vast sheet of 
water, dotted here and there with green islands, 



! 3 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

a long line of foam showing where the course of 
the river lay. There I would sit for hours, 
watching how little tufts of grass would gradually 
enlarge into islands, which in their turn would 
slowly grow and grow till they joined and formed 
part of the main-land, which was slowly but 
steadily reclaiming its lost domains from the re- 
treating waters. This was my only occupation ; 
I had no heart to join Isidoro on his frequent 
hunting expeditions ; the river was my sole 
thought, the only topic of conversation in which 
I could take any interest, and beside that every- 
thing else was of the utmost indifference. 

It was not that I had any actual fear of losing 
the steamer of the 30th, especially after the 
eighth day of our sojourn, during which the 
water had fallen with such surprising quickness 
that the banks of the river were in some parts 
beginning to uncover again. Still, occasionally, 
the fact that it was just within the limits of pos- 
sibility that I might not be able to pass in time 
would obtrude itself unpleasantly on my mind ; 
and though I would immediately triumphantly 
argue any such idea away, yet I felt that noth- 
ing was absolutely sure till we were actually on 
the other side of the river, and, pending that 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



139 



event, I was in a continual state of worry and 
restlessness. 

When we had been nine days at Guaraike, as 
that part of Gallegos is called by the Indians, 
Isidoro suggested, in view of the late rapid fall of 
the water, that we should go to another pass, 
some forty miles further up the river, which he 
thought might perhaps be fordable before the 
one we were now at. 

Any change was welcome to me; I had got 
to know and grow weary of every line, every 
curve of the country, every stone almost, round 
our present camp, and leaving them seemed a 
step towards crossing the river. It was, there- 
fore, with a comparatively light heart that I 
helped to drive up, pack, and saddle the horses, 
and soon we were off for the " Paso Del Medio," 
or Middle Pass, as it is called. 

As usual there was a boisterous wind blowing 
upon the plains, though far colder and sharper 
than any we had as yet experienced. In fact, 
the weather, instead of daily growing warmer, 
had been steadily growing colder and colder, and 
of late snow- squalls had become of quite frequent 
occurrence. 

Several hours' riding brought us to the Middle 



140 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



Pass. Before camping we rode down to inspect 
the state of the water. At Guaraike we had 
been unable to approach the river itself, as all the 
land on our side had been flooded over, but here 
at one spot the river bent in towards the north- 
ern side of the valley and flowed for some dis- 
tance along a steep cliff, which, of course, it could 
not overflow, and we were thus enabled to go 
down to its very brink, which was in so far satis- 
factory as it enabled us to gauge with more ex- 
actness the rise or fall of the flood. 

I drove a stake into the bank, and notched it 
at the water's level, and then we went back to a 
bush we had selected for camping under. It was 
rather a small one, and, being upon the plain, was 
exposed to the full force of the wind. However, 
it was the most suitable place we could find, and 
with the aid of some drift-wood, quantities of 
which were lying along the banks of the river, 
we managed to build up a kind of one-walled 
hut, which formed a tolerable shelter against the 
wind. The latter, during the whole of my stay 
in Patagonia, blew almost uninterruptedly from 
the west, either more or less cold, as it came 
from the north or south-west. 

That evening we ate our last biscuit ; our other 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



141 



provisions had already been exhausted, and 
henceforward we were reduced to a regimen of 
guanaco and ostrich meat, pur et simple, without 
salt even, for our small stock of that necessary, 
notwithstanding careful nursing, had also gradu- 
ally thinned away. 

At first the results of this exclusively meat diet 
were very unpleasant However much I would 
eat at a meal, and the quantity of meat I con- 
sumed at times was incredible, half an hour after- 
wards I would feel as famished as if I had 
touched nothing for days ; in fact, I seemed to 
derive no nourishment at all from my food. As 
time went on, however, I got more used to the 
change, and soon ceased to experience so phe- 
nomenal and troublesome an appetite, though, 
of course, I grew very weak, and had it not been 
for the ostrich eggs we occasionally found, and 
which kept up my stamina a little, I should not 
have had sufficient strength to support me 
through the exertions I was subsequently called 
upon to make. 

It became quite an important event when, as 
now and then happened, we managed to kill a 
puma, as we were then enabled to indulge in fat 
meat. On these occasions, I remember, I used 



1 42 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

to feel rather disgusted at the voracity with which 
we all of us used to gorge ourselves on the fat, 
without biscuit, salt, or any other condiment. 
But when one passes days and days, eating noth- 
ing but the leanest and most tasteless of meat, 
and more especially in cold weather, one feels a 
hankering for fat, as strong as the habitual 
drunkard's craving for alcohol. 

The day after our arrival at the Paso del 
Medio the waters commenced to retire at a rapid 
pace, and such improvement shortly took place in 
the state of things, that we quite looked forward 
to being able to cross in three or four days. 

The water had disappeared everywhere except 
in close vicinity to the river, which still looked of 
formidable breadth, however, though its banks 
were for the most part uncovered. We had had 
several sharp frosts, and the weather had con- 
tinued bitterly cold, to which fortunate circum- 
stance we attributed the corresponding speedy 
abatement in the water. But now came two 
successive days of warm sunshine, and though 
the water still to continued to fall, Isidoro grew 
apprehensive of a fresh thaw taking place in the 
Cordilleras before the effects of the first flood had 
subsided sufficiently to allow of our passing the 
river. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



143 



This new danger threatening us gave me ex- 
treme uneasiness. I had already observed how 
sensitive the river was to the state of the temper- 
ature, its fall varying in measure as the weather, 
in the preceding one or two days, -had been more 
or less cold, and I therefore looked doubtfully 
forward to the morrow for the effects of the be- 
fore-mentioned comparatively warm days. 

Our apprehensions were unfortunately but too 
well founded. The next day I had no need to 
go down to examine the notch on the stake to 
find out whether the river had fallen or risen. 
Without leaving our camp, which was at some 
distance from the valley, one could see but too 
plainly that a fresh flood had taken place during 
the night. The banks of the river had disap- 
peared, and half the valley was under water 
again. Thus one night had undone all the prog- 
ress of several days, and our chances of crossing 
the river had become as problematical as they 
had been ten days ago. 

This was a heavy, disheartening blow to me. 
Now it was indeed difficult to foresee when we 
might be able to pass. Any attempt at calculat- 
ing the event was gratuitous in the face of what 
had just happened. The water might rise and 



144 WANDERINGS IN. PATAGONIA; OR, 

fall in the same manner a dozen times. The un- 
usual fall of snow that winter might entail, and 
had in fact already entailed, unusual conse- 
quences. We might be kept waiting for weeks, 
and months even, during which my friends would 
be kept in a state of great anxiety and suspense 
as to my fate ; and, apart from these considera- 
tions, now that the charm of novelty had worn 
off, the life of hardship and isolation I was leading 
had become extremely distasteful to me ; a deep 
ennui fell upon me which I could not shake off, 
and which the society of my companions was not 
calculated to dissipate. I impatiently longed for 
those refinements and associations of civilization, 
from which, at the outset of my trip, I had 
thought it pleasant to escape. 

Under the influence of all these feelings, I re- 
solved to attempt to swim the river. On the first 
day of our arrival at Guaraike I had seriously en- 
tertained this plan, but I had then rejected it as 
being attended with considerable danger, and also 
because I had hoped that in a few days the river 
might be fordable. The danger was now, of 
course, still greater; but the prospect of an in- 
definite prolongation of my present unbearable 
position was so terrible that I felt ready for any 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



145 



enterprise, however risky, which might free me 
from it. 

Guillaume, to whom I communicated my in- 
tentions, thought my idea was practicable, and 
declared himself ready to accompany me when- 
ever I chose. He, too, was anxious to get to 
Sandy Point for several reasons, of which the 
chief one was that he had no tobacco left, and 
life without it, he seemed to think, was not worth 
living. 

It was now the 18th October, and if we cross- 
ed the river by the 26th we had plenty of time 
to get to Sandy Point by the 1st November, on 
or about which day the next steamer passed for 
Buenos Ayres. We therefore deferred the carry- 
ing out of our plans for a few days, in order to 
await a fresh fall in the water. 

I felt much more tranquil now that I had made 
up my mind to take the bull by the horns, and 
my companions were surprised at the sudden 
change of my spirits, which henceforward were 
more cheerful and buoyant than they had been 
for a long time. 
IO 



CHAPTER X. 

WE stopped two days longer at the Paso del 
Medio, and then, tormented with continual 
restlessness, we moved thirty miles further up to 
the last pass, called the "Paso de Alquinta." 

We camped at about six miles from the pass 
itself, under shelter of what Isidoro, rather gran- 
diloquently, persisted in calling a "house," but 
which was in reality nothing but three low walls, 
barely four feet high, built by some Indian trad- 
ers, of blocks of lava, the chinks between which 
were stopped with mud and grass. 

The "house" was, of course, roofless, and by 
no means so good a lodging as a thick bush 
would have been, but still it was better than 
nothing, and at all events enabled us to have 
always a good fire burning, without consuming 
too much fuel — a very important consideration, 
146 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



147 



as there was very little wood to be met with any- 
where in that region. 

During the first night there was a heavy fall 
of snow, and on waking I felt an unusual weight 
on my furs and an excessive warmth under them 
I was certainly not accustomed to. 

Thrusting out my head I found everything 
covered with snow. The distant hills stood out 
in glittering relief against the dark gray sky, and 
the whole landscape was specklessly white, ex- 
cept where the river flowed along the valley, 
looking inky black by contrast with the sur- 
rounding country. Our horses, plentifully be- 
sprinkled with snow, too, poor animals, were 
standing near to the camp, herded motionless to- 
gether, with sadly drooping heads, and an ex- 
pression of patient suffering and forlorn misery in 
their rough faces, which filled me with compas- 
sion for them. 

We remained in bed till the afternoon, when 
the snow began to thaw away, soaking all our 
bedding and making things generally uncomfort- 
able for us. 

Fearing the effect the melting of the recent 
snow might have on the river, we resolved to 
make an attempt to cross it the following morn- 



1 48 WAND E RINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

ing. Isidoro, to whom we now communicated 
our intention for the first time, seemed quite 
alarmed at the idea and did everything in his 
power to persuade us to desist from it. Until 
this occasion I had never been able to get more 
than half a dozen words out of him at a time ; 
but now, in his efforts to induce us to give up 
our undertaking, which he qualified as an act of 
utter madness, he waxed quite eloquent, and 
made a longer speech than he had probably ever 
delivered himself of in his whole existence. The 
current, he urged, was too strong for our horses 
to stem ; moreover, a companion of his, he told 
us, had once tried to cross the river when it was 
not nearly so swollen as now and had narrowly 
escaped being drowned. Finding, however, that 
we had made up our minds, and were not to be 
persuaded to alter them, Isidoro relapsed into his 
usual silence, whilst we made our preparations 
for the ensuing day. 

We intended crossing over at sunrise, so as to 
have ample time to dry our wet things on the 
other side before night-time. In order to be able 
to rely on having something dry to cover our- 
selves with immediately after our swim over, we 
rolled two capas up as tightly as possible, and 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS, j^g 

stuffed them into a small water-tight canvas bag. 
In the middle of the capas we carefully placed 
our greatest treasure — twelve wax matches in a 
little tortoise-shell box, which we rendered im- 
pervious to damp by securely wrapping in pieces 
of guanaco hide. 

Of matches, I must mention, we had run short, 
as of everything else, and were compelled to be 
most economical in the use of the few that still 
remained to us, to which end the fire was kept 
burning day and night. We put into our sad- 
dle-bags sufficient ostrich meat and puma fat to 
last us for three days — the time we calculated we 
should require to reach Sandy Point in. Guil- 
laume intended leaving his dogs with Isidoro, as 
they would suffer unnecessarily from the fatigue 
of such a rapid journey. 

Having concluded our preparations, we sat 
down to dinner, over which we discussed our 
chances for the morrow, and arranged our plan 
of action. There were two ways of crossing 
over — either we might swim over on horseback, 
or put our clothes and things on the horses 
and make them swim over first, and then fol- 
low ourselves as soon as they had safely arrived 
on the opposite shore. 



x zo WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

The objection to the first method was that the 
horses' strength might possibly give way in the 
middle of the river, or that by some accident we 
might be unseated at a distance from the shore, 
in either of which cases, encumbered with our 
clothes, etc., we were almost certain to be 
drowned. The difficulty which presented itself 
in connection with the second method was the 
doubt we felt as to whether we should be able to 
stand a long immersion in the icy cold water 
without succumbing to cramp and exhaustion, 
especially taking into consideration the weak state 
our late poor diet had reduced us to. After a 
long discussion we finally adopted the plan of 
swimming over on horseback. 

We went to bed early, but it was a long time 
before I could fall asleep ; I was too excited with 
the thoughts of the coming struggle. At last I 
was to try conclusions with the river which had 
so long baffled me. If successful, four nights 
from then I should be at Sandy Point, sure of 
my steamer, relieved from the hardships I was 
now suffering, and soon to be restored to civili- 
zation, for which I was longing as ardently as an 
Indian confined to the close, noisy streets of a 
populous town might long for the breezy soli- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



151 



tudes of the pampa. In my dreams that night I 
must have crossed the river twenty times at least, 
and I was splashing in the midst of its cold cur- 
rent for the twenty-first time when Guillame 
woke me up to tell me it was time to get ready. 

Day was just breaking, and the weather was 
cloudy and cold. We ate a hurried breakfast, 
saddled our horses and rode towards the pass, 
which was about six miles from where we were 
camping. On the way we had to cross the open, 
and came full under the blast of the bitter wind, 
which was especially sharp at that early hour ; 
and we were blue and shivering long before we 
got to the river. There was unfortunately no 
sun, though I would have given everything for a 
sight of his cheering face to keep up my morale, 
which, I must confess, at the prospect of a cold 
and dangerous plunge on that wintry morning, 
had sunk extremely low. 

Presently we reached the river, and never, I 
thought, had it seemed so broad or looked so un- 
pleasantly dark and treacherous as now. Its ed- 
dying current slid past us with a rapidity which 
made me giddy to watch long. The water 
foamed viciously as it broke into waves, and 
showers of spray, swept up by the occasional 
gusts of wind, flew over its troubled surface. 



152 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



Without further delay we said good-bye to Isi- 
doro, tightened our saddle-girths, and rode to- 
wards the point from which we intended starting. 
There we paused a moment before taking the 
decisive step forward — a moment of extreme nerv- 
ous tension for both of us. I felt an oppressive 
contraction of the throat and chest, which, to be 
candid, I must attribute to a passing feeling of 
fear that came over me at the last moment, now 
that I was about to commit myself, not without 
serious misgivings as to the consequences, to the 
mercies of the broad torrent which had so long 
baffled my progress. However, remembering 
that the longer one looks at a leap the less one 
likes to take it, I called out to Guillaume that I 
was ready, and, with spur and whip we urged 
our horses down the steep bank towards the 
water. 

For a moment, rearing and snorting, they in- 
stinctively recoiled from the dangerous element, 
but, the pebbly bank giving way under their feet, 
they could not stop themselves, and down we went 
— plunge ! — head over ears into the cold water. 
I came to the surface, snapping for breath, but 
still in the saddle, though the water, dripping 
over my eyes, for a second or two quite blinded 
me. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS, i 5 3 

After a little urging the horses at first struck 
out right enough, but I found that to keep my 
seat the greatest exertions were required. Till 
then I had never swum on horseback, and had no 
idea how difficult it is to remain in the saddle 
during the process. The water insinuates itself 
cunningly between your knees and thighs, imper- 
ceptibly you lose your grip, and before you know 
it you are gently lifted from your seat and find 
yourself afloat, especially when dealing with a 
current as strong as the one in question. 

In the mean time our horses went all right till 
they came to the middle current, which swept 
down with great force. The moment they felt it, 
they suddenly swerved, and made for the bank 
we had just left. I tried to make my horse turn 
again, but it became quite unmanageable, and 
Guillaume in a similar attempt was unseated, and 
was only able to regain his saddle after a severe 
struggle, which I watched with intense anxiety, 
as I was unable to come to his rescue, being my- 
self in difficulties. 

Breathless and dripping, and humiliated with 
the consciousness of our failure, we finally got to 
shore again, and after a hasty council, resolved to 
make another attempt the following day, as, after 



1 54 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

the facer we had just received, our nerves were 
not equal to another ordeal for the moment. As 
long as the excitement of the danger lasted we 
had felt neither wet nor cold, but now that it was 
over Nature re-asserted herself, and drenched to 
the skin as we were, and exposed to the blasts of 
a savagely inclement wind, we were completely- 
prostrated, quaking and shivering, and in such a 
state that it would have been mere foolhardiness 
to go into the water again. The six- mile ride 
back to the camp in our wet clothes was another 
disagreeable trial. By the time we got there we 
were perfectly numbed, and had to warm our stif- 
fened fingers a long time by the fire before they 
were sufficiently supple to enable us to undress. 
Having stripped, I rolled myself in my capa, and, 
thanks to that never -sufficiently -to -be -praised 
covering, warmth and circulation were soon re- 
stored to my chilled limbs. We had, unfortu- 
nately, no mate left, though on this occasion more 
than ever we stood in need of its stimulating and 
restorative aid. 

Notwithstanding our failure, we were by no 
means disheartened, or disposed to relinquish our 
endeavors to cross the river ; on the contrary, the 
non-success of our first attempt only intensified 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



155 



my firm resolve to reach Sandy Point, come what 
might, by the 1st of November, and nerved us to 
a fresh encounter with the dangers of the river 
and the inclemency of the weather. 

The next morning we again made the attempt, 
and were again unsuccessful as before. The 
horses went well till they got to the rapid middle 
current, and there nothing would induce them to 
continue. In the struggle with my horse I was 
swept from my seat I caught successively at the 
mane and saddle, but missed them both, just 
managing to catch hold of a valise which was 
strapped to the back of the latter. I clung to it 
like grim death, whilst my horse swam back to 
the bank. Several times I was in danger of be- 
ing dragged under by the current, and the valise, 
under the strain of my weight, began gradually 
to give way. When it did come down, saddle 
and all, we were fortunately already in shallow 
water, and I came to no harm, though it was 
lucky it held so long, for, heavily booted and 
clothed as I was, had it happened a little sooner, 
I should have gone to the bottom. 

We rode disconsolately back to the camp, suf- 
fering extremely from the cold wind, as on the 
previous day. It was useless, we had now con- 



156 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA. 



vinced ourselves, to swim over on our horses, for 
as soon as we came to the middle current we were 
at their mercy. We therefore resolved to try the 
other expedient, of driving them over first and 
then following ourselves. 

For topographical reasons we considered the 
pass at Guaraike to be more favorable for this 
mode of crossing than the one we were now at, 
and we therefore resolved to go there. We said 
good-bye once more to Isidoro, who preferred re- 
maining where he was, as there was better pas- 
turage for his horses. We took enough meat 
with us to last us for four days, and leaving the 
dogs with Isidoro, we started off for Guaraike, 
where we arrived late in the evening after a long 
gallop. 

We did not camp on the old spot, but rode 
further down to a little " house" Guillaume knew 
of, similar to the one at the Paso de Alquinta, 
but with rather higher walls, and which had also 
been built by some Indian traders. 

We ate a very small supper, as it was necessary 
to economize the little meat we had with us, con- 
soling ourselves with the hope of soon being able 
to indulge in less meagre fare, and finally we went 
to bed, confident of passing the next night on the 
other side of the Gallegos. 



CHAPTER XL 

EARLY the next morning we were up and off 
to the river. To get to its banks we had to 
ride through about a mile and a half of slack wa- 
ter, of varying depth, but seldom above the knees 
of our horses. Near the river there was a dry- 
spot on a tract of high-lying land, and there ac- 
cordingly we made our preparations. We took 
off our clothes and placed them, together with 
the matches, revolvers, etc., in the middle of the 
capas, which were rolled up in the canvas bag, as 
on the previous occasions, and then carefully and 
firmly strapped on the saddle of one of the horses. 
All this was done as quickly as possible, for we 
were now, of course, almost naked, and the wind, 
as usual, was blowing hard and cold, with min- 
gled hail and snow. We had little doubt as to 
the success of this our third effort. Indeed, we 

157 



i 5 8 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



had, as it were, cut off our own retreat, in putting 
all our clothes and furs on the horses, for if they 
once got safely to the other side, we were of a 
necessity forced to follow somehow, or expose 
ourselves to the alternative of perishing with hun- 
ger and cold. It was a foolhardy action, but we 
had become desperate, and were ready to run a 
slight risk, if only we could surmount the hated 
obstacle which barred our way to Sandy Point. 

Everything being ready, we drove the horses, 
not without great difficulty, into the water, fol- 
lowing ourselves as far as we were able, though 
such was the force of the current that we had 
hardly waded in knee-deep before we were 
knocked off our feet. After immense trouble, 
with the help of stones and sticks, we managed 
to drive the horses into the middle current, down 
whose centre they were soon swept, puffing and 
snorting and endeavoring to turn back towards 
the bank we were standing on. Whenever they 
did so, however, we would fling a volley of stones 
at them, and by these means at last we got them 
to head towards the other bank. We watched 
their progress with beating hearts, in painful sus- 
pense lest any accident should happen to them, 
for they carried, as it were, our own lives, as 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



159 



Well as their own. After a few seconds, which 
seemed an eternity to us,- they reached the land, 
and we gave a shout of joy and relief. But our 
triumph was of but a second's duration ; fate was 
still against us. As ill luck would have it, the 
horses happened just to touch land with their 
noses where the bank was almost vertical and 
where they consequently had no footing. In- 
stinctively they turned round and made straight 
for our side again. 

Dismayed and disappointed, we no longer made 
any attempt to drive them back ; indeed, we. were 
fearful that, after their long swim and their efforts 
against the current, they would not have strength 
to get back again. At last they landed, however, 
though of course a long way down from where 
they had started. We ourselves by this time 
were in a most pitiable state ; for more than half 
an hour we had been splashing in and out of the 
icy-cold water, exposed to wind and weather, and 
we were now thoroughly exhausted, our teeth 
chattering, our bodies doubled up, and unable to 
speak to one another except by signs. 

We had just strength enough to get the capas 
out of the bag, the inner ones being fortunately 
quite dry; and wrapping ourselves well up, we 



X 6o WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

lay down for about an hour, by which time we 
were sufficiently recovered to be able to remount 
our horses and ride back to the camp. 

We were now at last discouraged. An unex- 
pected stroke of bad luck, a mishap we could not 
possibly have foreseen, had occurred just at the 
last moment and spoiled everything, converting 
what had appeared a certain triumph into a dis- 
astrous failure. If the horses had only happened 
to touch land ten feet further up or ten feet fur- 
ther down, where the bank was less steep, by this 
time. we might have been on the road to Sandy 
Point. But everything seemed to be against us. 
I had brought all my energy to this last attempt, 
the last chance of reaching our destination in time 
for the steamer of the 1st November. It had 
failed, and I felt unmanned and dispirited. My 
physical strength, too, was giving way under these 
repeated exertions and the poor diet of the last 
two weeks. 

All these considerations combined, and there 
being no immediate necessity for crossing the 
river now, as the next steamer did not leave 
Sandy Point till the loth of November, made us 
resolve to wait a few days longer before risking 
another attempt at swimming over, especially as 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. I 6 I 

all this time the water had been rapidly decreas- 
ing again ; and, judging by the height of the 
river, we might now reasonably expect to find it 
fordable in, at most, three or four days, always 
supposing that no new flood occurred. We had, 
therefore, merely to closely watch the river, so as 
to be ready to cross again, if any signs of a fresh 
rise should appear. 

Notwithstanding that we were now well into 
spring, I was surprised to find but little corre- 
sponding change in the weather. Occasionally we 
had a warm day, but it was the exception, and 
was sure to be immediately followed by unusual 
cold. The west wind blew almost unintermit- 
tingly, and always with extreme violence. In 
fact, with all my memories of Patagonia are 
closely associated, as one of the most prominent 
peculiarities of its landscapes, the fiercely cold but 
exhilarating blasts of that same wild west wind. 
But though the weather had got but little warmer, 
there was everywhere a marked change in the 
vegetation. The grass in the glens was gradu- 
ally becoming fresh and green, and the bright 
young leaves of the calafate bush were inter- 
spersed with bunches of small yellow flowers, 
Flowers, too, red and white orchids, and pink 
II 



X 52 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

cowslips, were springing up amongst the grass, 
and that none of the associations of spring-time 
might be wanting, clouds of tiny little swallows, 
white-breasted and with glittering blue wings — 
come from Heaven knows where — were to be 
seen skimming through the air in all directions. 
Wretched and miserable indeed must be the spot 
over which spring can pass without making her 
genial influence felt in some way, though it be 
but in the transitory brightening of a few poor 
blades of grass. 

It is fortunate that the calafate is everywhere 
abundant in Patagonia, as its wood affords excel- 
lent fuel, being extremely hard and consuming it- 
self very slowly. At night-time we would cover 
up the embers well, and were sure to find them 
still smoldering in the morning, and were thus 
able to economize our matches, of which we had 
now but few left. 

The valley had become the rendezvous of wild 
fowl of all descriptions — swans, wild geese, ducks, 
snipe, etc. ; and many a time we regretted not 
having brought a gun with us. A roast goose 
now and then would have made a welcome im- 
provement on our eternal diet of lean guanaco 
and ostrich. A bevy of ibis, or "bandurria," as 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



163 



the Chilians call them, used to make a point every 
evening of assembling close to our camp, and 
lifting up their voices and quacking till an hour or 
so after sundown. Their note resembles that of 
the duck, though it is rather shorter and drier. 
They seemed to know, confound them ! that they 
had nothing to fear from us, and would let us 
come quite near enough to enable us to see how 
provokingly fat they all were. The Indians call 
the wild geese of those parts, "kay-ken," in imi- 
tation of its cry, which has a rather melancholy 
sound, and which was always sounding in our 
ears, morning, noon, and evening, repeated by a 
thousand throats in lengthened and mournful 
cadences. All these wild fowl remain in the 
southern valleys till their young are fledged, and 
then as the warm weather comes on they fly 
north and play havoc among the rich corn-fields 
of the Rio Negro. 

Two days went by and we began to find our- 
selves running short - of meat, our stock having 
only been calculated to last for four days, as we 
had made our provision on the assumption of 
reaching Sandy Point by that time. It was, 
therefore, necessary for Guillaume to go back to 
Isidoro to fetch the dogs. As it was a long dis- 



1 64 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



tance, being more than 1 20 miles there and hack, 
and being anxious to spare our horses as much 
as possible, we first went out to see if we could 
hunt up a puma, the only animal one can kill 
without the aid of dogs — the bolas or a revolver 
being all that is required. 

But after a long search we were unsuccessful, 
and early the next morning, therefore, Guillaume 
started off, leaving a small piece of meat which 
was to last me till the evening of the next day, 
by which time he hoped to be back. 

When he was gone I saddled my horse and 
rode up the Canada side of the Squaws to collect 
lire- wood, as there was none near our camp. I 
found it no easy task to break off the dry 
branches out of thorny bushes, or pull up old 
roots which were firmly seated in the ground, in 
my present weak state, and I was glad when I 
had got sufficient wood to last me for that and 
the following day. At no period of my sojourn 
in Gallegos had I felt so weak as I now did. For 
three days we had eaten next to nothing, in fact, 
less than I could ordinarily eat myself at one 
meal, and I have already said how little sustain- 
ing power there is even in a large quantity of 
lean guanaco or ostrich meat. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



I6 5 



When I got back to camp I cooked a small 
piece of the meat Guillaume had left me, and then 
carefully deposited it on the top of one of the 
walls of the house, so as to be out of reach of 
the foxes, who are terrible marauders, and who 
will eat your reins, lasso, saddle even, or any 
leathern article you may be so incautious as to 
leave lying about. 

Feeling tired after my frugal meal, which com- 
pared to my hunger was but as a drop in the 
ocean, I lay down on my furs and dozed off into 
a sound sleep from which I was presently awak- 
ened by a confusion of strange screeches and 
flapping of wings. Starting up, I found the 
noise proceeded from some carranchos, who were 
quarreling over my meat, or rather over the 
bone, which was all that I found of it, after I had 
driven them away with stones and strong lan- 
guage. Incidit in Scyllam, etc. In my en- 
deavors to secure my food from the foxes I had 
delivered it into the beaks and claws of the car- 
ranchos, and felt not a little annoyed at my own 
carelessness. It was no pleasant matter having 
to fast for the next thirty hours, hungry as I 
already was, and if Guillaume by some possible 
accident were detained a day longer, I might find 



1 55 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

myself in a very serious plight. I was evidently 
out of luck, and that with a vengeance, and I be- 
gan to wonder what my next mishap would be. 
The only misfortune that could now happen to 
me was that my horse might take it into his head 
to run away, and then I should indeed be in a 
desperate fix. He was quietly grazing at the 
time, but the idea of such a possibility so start- 
led me that I immediately tied a lasso to his 
halter and secured it to a huge stone near the 
house, so as to prevent any such untoward event- 
uality. Then, feeling hungry, I commenced to 
search my traps for any stray piece of meat that 
might possibly have been forgotten there. All 
I could find was a small piece of puma fat, 
wrapped up in a piece of linen, in a coat pocket 
of Guillaume's, which had doubtless been in- 
tended for greasing the dog's paws when 
wounded, for which purpose it is considered an 
excellent specific. To me, under my present cir- 
cumstances, however, it was quite a treasure, and 
I immediately cooked and ate half, keeping the 
rest for the next day. 

Having made all my arrangements for passing 
the night, I made a good fire, as it was very cold, 
and wrapping myself up well in my capa, I sat 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



167 



down beside it, waiting as stoically as I could for 
night-time, and trying to forget amidst the splen- 
dor of the sunset the small sharp whisper of the 
little voice within my stomach. 

From the slight elevation where I was now sit- 
ting I could overlook the whole of the surround- 
ing country, the far hills and plains, the wind- 
ing valley shut in by steep cliffs, past whose base 
the river swept its tortuous course ; the broad 
lakes formed by the overflow of its waters, dot- 
ted everywhere with green islands, where thou- 
sands of wild fowl were now assembled, the harsh 
cries of the gulls, and the plaintive note of the 
kay-ken being the only sounds that broke the 
otherwise intense silence. Over all the setting 
sun was pouring his last rays, bathing the distant 
hills in a warm haze, and burnishing the waters 
at my feet with fiery showers of light, and lend- 
ing, with his magic tints of red and gold, a trans- 
itory gleam of grace and beauty, even to that 
wild desert spot. 

But as the sun went down the charm sped with 
him. The glory departed from the distant hills 
and they became gray and cold as before ; the 
light faded from the valley, the waters assumed a 
muddy hue, and the islands blackened on their 



1 68 WA ND E RINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

surface. The cry of the wild fowl slowly ceased, 
and below me soon all was silent and dark. 

The stars crept out one by one, and still I sat 
by the red gleams of the dying fire, listening to 
the whispering voices of the night wind and 
watching the weird, ghostly shapes occasionally 
assumed by the white mist that now hung over 
the valley, as it swayed mysteriously to and fro, 
like a band of unquiet spirits. 

The whole thing seemed so unreal, the turn of 
events so fantastic, which had brought me, a 
child of noisy towns and bustling marts, into my 
strange position, alone in that immense solitude ; 
— the wildness of the scene, starlit and dim, the 
strange noises of the night, the thousand sounds 
which yet seemed silence — I thought it must all 
be a dream, and most surely I must awaken and 
find myself in my own room, under warm bed- 
clothes, with the voice of the servant with my 
shaving- water ringing in my ears. 

But a shiver of cold which went through my 
body and the strong pangs of hunger were quite 
sufficient to remind me of the reality of all around 
me ; so, heaping some more wood on the fire and 
giving another look to see if the horse was all 
secure, I sought my couch, to sleep as best I 
might till morning. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



169 



A sharp frost fell during the night, much to my 
satisfaction, as I had now strong hopes of crossing 
the river in a couple of days. Having satisfied 
myself that the water was still falling rapidly — - 
always my first task of a morning — I cooked and 
ate the remaining piece of puma fat, and then, 
still feeling terribly hungry, and as a means of 
killing time till Guillaume should come, I tried 
to stalk wild geese with my revolver. I could 
never come within range, however, though they 
are not very shy, and finally gave up this unex- 
citing and unproductive sport in a rather unpleas- 
ant state of mind, as I began to ask myself what 
I should do if Guillaume should happen not to 
come back that day. 

Casting my eyes about they happened to fall 
on a large island in the middle of the valley, 
which had often attracted our attention on ac- 
count of its being the rendezvous of a bevy of 
swans, which we imagined must have nests and 
eggs there, and we had often meditated a raid on 
the latter. Hitherto we had been hindered from 
doing so because the island was surrounded for a 
long distance by very deep water, which, as may 
be imagined, was quite sufficient to keep the 
swans' eggs safe from us as long as anything else 



iy WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

could be found to eat. Since we had last sur- 
veyed the defenses of the island, however, the 
water had fallen very much, and it occurred to 
me, in my present stress, that by carefully search- 
ing I might find a tolerably dry road to the 
island. I accordingly saddled my horse and set 
out on my exploration. After a great deal of 
splashing and several narrow escapes of tumbling 
into holes, varied by occasional energetic protests 
from my horse — who, by the bye, after all his 
late experience and his daily three or four rides 
through the water to examine the river, must 
have thought I was trying to convert him into an 
amphibious animal — I at last managed to dis- 
cover a route which was almost practicable, and 
which by the next day, when the water would 
have fallen still further, would probably be 
thoroughly so. I could distinctly see several 
swans sitting on their nests, to whom I waved a 
light au revoir, and then returned to the camp, 
feeling that even if Guillaume were not to come 
back that day, I now knew where to find my 
dinner, although at the expense of a slight wet- 
ting. 

However, I fortunately had no necessity for 
incurring that inconvenience; for, towards five 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. I ^ I 

o'clock, just as — despairing of his return — I was 
getting ready to swim over to the island, I de- 
scried him galloping towards the camp. He 
presently arrived, bringing the dogs, some meat, 
and four ostrich eggs he had found on the way. 

Famished as I was after my long fast, I lost no 
time in spitting some meat and setting it to roast, 
busying myself whilst it was cooking with the 
preparation of an ostrich egg a la Patagonienne. 
The process is as follows : You break a small 
round hole in the top of the egg, and, after having 
removed some of the white, which is rather heavy 
for the stomach, and having thoroughly beaten 
up the yolk, you set the egg on its end in the 
ashes at a little distance from the fire, carefully 
turning it now and then to prevent the shell 
from cracking. Whilst cooking it must occasion- 
ally be removed from the fire, and the batter 
must be stirred well, or else it will stick to the 
sides of the shell and burn. In a quarter of an 
hour it will be well roasted ; add pepper and salt, 
if you have any, and serve. Our stock of these 
useful condiments had unfortunately long been ex- 
hausted. Cooked in this way, ostrich eggs are 
excellent, and far better than when boiled. The 
act of removing and placing them near the fire 



I j 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

whilst roasting requires great nimbleness of finger. 
I had, during my novitiate, two standing sores or 
burns on forefinger and thumb, as I would some- 
times cook as many as three or four eggs a day. 
They are said to be very indigestible, two eggs 
eaten in a day being said to endanger a man's 
life ; but the foregoing is a proof to the contrary. 
I have known Guillaume to eat six eggs in the 
space of eight hours, independent of his ordinary 
meals. It is true his powers were beyond the 
usual run, even of those of his own habits and 
profession. 

In the conversation which ensued, when I had 
in some degree allayed the pangs of hunger, 
Guillaume told me that on his way down he had 
paid a flying visit to the Middle Pass, the result 
of which was that he considered it the best place 
to cross over, in case, contrary to our present 
expectations, we should again be obliged to swim 
for it. The banks on the other side were all 
low lying, and there would consequently be no 
danger of a repetition of the accident which had 
prevented us from crossing over at the pass we 
were now at. In return for this information, 
I told him of my discovery of a road to the 
island, and eggs being almost indispensable to us 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



173 



for keeping up our failing strength, for which the 
meat alone was quite inadequate, we resolved to 
make a raid on the nests the following morning. 

Shortly after day- break, therefore, we sat out 
towards the island, each of us armed with a stick 
and revolver, in case the birds, which are said to 
be very savage, should think fit to resent our 
seizure of their eggs. The road to the island 
was not as favorable as it had appeared to me 
the day before, and we got soaked up to the 
waist in crossing over, but in the excitement of 
the chase, we took little notice of that. Long 
before we arrived a commotion was visible 
amongst the inmates of the island ; several male 
swans and crowds of wild geese and other fowl 
flew up and hovered over us, watching our on- 
ward course with signs of marked disapproval. 
The female birds, however, kept their seats till 
we were within ten yards of them, and then rose 
with a hissing cry and much flapping of wings, 
circling over our heads, and occasionally gliding 
close to us, whilst we were despoiling their nests, 
though without making any attempt at attacking 
us. We found eight swans' nests containing 
each four eggs, besides some forty wild geese 
eggs. To mitigate the distress of the birds, we 



1 74 ~ WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

left one egg in each nest, and with the rest of our 
booty returned to the camp in triumph. Whilst 
our wet clothes were drying by the fire, wrapped 
in our capas, we set to and commenced roasting 
some swan's eggs. They are about half the size 
of ostrich's eggs, and of a similar taste. Amongst 
the other eggs were some of a species of duck, 
which to my taste seemed incomparably finer 
than the best bantam's, and as may be imagined, 
we were not slow in doing full justice to them. 

At five o'clock I mounted my horse and rode 
leisurely towards the river, as was my habit, in 
order to watch the progress of its gradual de- 
crease, which, as I have already said, had been 
very satisfactory lately. But to-night already 
from afar I was startled by the appearance of the 
banks, which seemed to me lower than usual. 
The mark confirmed my fears. The water had 
risen more than two inches. In deep dismay I 
galloped back to the camp and told Guillaume 
the bad news. For a moment the blow left us 
bewildered. Experience had taught us that one 
night would suffice to flood the river as high as 
it had been before. It seemed as if we were 
again to be thrown back a fortnight. It was 
time to adopt some decisive measures. Late as 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



175 



it was I suggested that we should ride off that 
very night to the Middle Pass, and swim across 
at day-break, be the river as it might. There was 
no time to lose in indecision, and half an hour af- 
ter I proposed this plan we had packed up our 
things, saddled the horses and were once more 
on the march. The sun was setting as we 
emerged from Gallegos valley into the plain and 
before long it was quite dark. It was midnight 
when we arrived at the old camp at the Middle 
Pass, cold and blue after a long buffeting with 
our old enemy, the wind. Tired as we were, we 
had to collect wood to make a fire with, in order 
to warm ourselves by before we could get to 
sleep. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE morning broke, as it always did whenever 
we tried to cross the river, bleakly and coldly. 
The river had risen considerably during the night, 
and was still rising rapidly. Previous to our oth- 
er arrangements, we fixed on a site from which to 
start ourselves, after the horses should once be 
safely across. 

The chief danger in passing the river lay in the 
possibility of the middle current being too strong 
for us to stem, in which case we should of neces- 
sity be swept along with it, without being able to 
reach either bank, until, our strength giving way 
under the combined influence of the cold and our 
exertions, we should ultimately perish. The spot 
we chose seemed to obviate this danger, as a lit- 
tle way down the opposite bank made a broad 
curve, forming a point which shot for a long way 
176 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



177 



into the river. I could see that the current fol- 
lowed the curve, running inside the point. By 
committing ourselves, therefore, to the current at 
some distance above the point, we must of neces- 
sity, I argued, bring up in the little bay formed 
by the curve above mentioned, in which case the 
point would act as an effectual bar to our being 
swept down the centre of the river. All this 
seemed plausible enough, but we were reckoning 
without our host, however, as I presently discov- 
ered, and in ignorance of the course taken by the 
current, which did not, as we supposed, always 
follow the bend of the banks or keep in the cen- 
tre of the river where the water was deepest, but 
darted about capriciously, without apparently de- 
pending on any topographical influences, though 
no doubt it did. 

We first made a large fire near the river to 
warm ourselves by whilst packing and saddling 
the horses, so that the caloric of our bodies should 
not be all exhausted, as on the last occasion, be- 
fore we had to make the final struggle, when we 
should have most need of it. It proved a most 
providential act ; this same fire subsequently saved 
my life. We made our preparations in deep si- 
lence, being both too busy with our own thoughts 
12 



i;8 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



to say much. We were firmly resolved that, 
coute que coute y this was to be our last effort. We 
had the usual difficulty to induce the horses to 
enter the water. Once in, however, they were 
soon seized by the current and swept down the 
river. We watched their course with the most 
intense anxiety. At first it seemed that they 
could not stem the current, which was evidently 
stronger than it had been at our last attempt. 
For a moment we held our breath in painful sus- 
pense, but gradually they began to gain towards 
the opposite bank, and presently we saw them 
emerge safe and sound from the water, though 
the distance they had been carried down showed 
what the strength of the current must be. 

Everything now depended on ourselves. The 
supreme moment had come, and not a second was 
to be lost, for already I began to feel numb with 
the cold. On the other side were our clothes, 
our furs, our matches — -our e^tfstence, in fact. 
Between us lay the river. We must cross it; 
there was no alternative. I ran towards the place 
we had chosen for starting from as quickly as pos- 
sible, not daring to look at the river on the way, 
lest my courage should fail me now that I most 
required its aid. I had to wade for some distance 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



179 



through a sheet of shallow water before reaching 
the river itself. It only came up to my waist, 
which made it colder than if I had been com- 
pletely immersed, and the wind was piercing all 
the time to the very marrow of my bones. Sud- 
denly I fell into a hole, sousing head over ears 
into the water. Chilled and breathless with the 
shock, I emerged after a short swim and hurried 
on my way, anxious to get it all over. At last I 
came to the river. Without pausing a moment 
I jumped in, with a feeling of relief that the 
worst would soon be passed. I struck out with 
the current, and as I had foreseen it swept me 
rapidly towards the point. In a few seconds I 
was close to the bank ; I stretched out my hands 
to clutch at the grass, when to my horror the 
land seemed suddenly to recede from me again. 
The current had swerved off before actually 
reaching land, and I was being hurried with fearful 
swiftness into the middle of the river. I tried to 
make for land, but my legs and arms stiffened, 
and I seemed to be dragged under the water. A 
desperate struggle brought me once more to the 
surface. I remember catching a glimpse of the 
blue sky, and feeling with sickening terror that I 
was lost, and again I sank under. 



! So WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

For a second or two I think I must have been 
unconscious ; when I came to myself again I felt 
I was in warmer water. My strength revived a 
little, and I struck out several times towards a 
bank, close along which I was being hurried in 
the direction of another point a little further 
down. At times I came so near the bank that I 
could actually stretch out my hands and reach 
the long grass growing on it, but my fingers, stif- 
fened with the cold, refused to close on what alone 
could save me from being swept away again. It 
was a horrible moment, for if I passed the next 
point, I was indeed lost. I shouted for help, but 
no one answered ; it almost seemed that I was to 
be drowned with one foot on land, so to speak. 

Suddenly, however, my feet touched the 
bottom, and in another second, carried bodily 
against the extremity of the point, I found my- 
self in shallow water, where I was able to regain 
my footing, and take breath once more. I man- 
aged to drag myself up the bank, but on reach- 
ing the top, my strength gave way again, and, 
overcome with cold and fatigue, I sank down, 
utterly prostrate and helpless. On emerging 
from the river, a glance had shown me that ill- 
luck had willed that I should be thrown up on 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS, jgj 

the same side from which I had started. For- 
tunately I found myself not far distant from the 
fire we had made before crossing, and with my 
remaining strength I now endeavored to reach 
it. I could only breathe with the greatest diffi- 
culty ; at times I thought I must choke. I tried 
to raise myself up and walk, but failed ; my legs 
were like lead, all circulation seemed arrested, 
and I could only crawl slowly along on all fours. 
Many times I thought I must give in, but with 
the energy of despair I struggled on, and at last 
reached the fire, which was still fortunately burn- 
ing. Some logs of wood were lying close to it ; 
I pushed them in, and there was soon a good 
blaze. It seemed to give me no warmth, how- 
ever, though in my agony I almost thrust my 
body into the very flames. Nearly an hour 
elapsed before circulation was properly restored, 
during Avhich I lay shivering with cold, and 
gasping for breath in a state of the most acute 
suffering. 

When I had in some measure recovered, I be- 
gan to realize the critical position I w 7 as now 
placed in. Terrible as the idea was to me after 
my recent narrow escape from drowning, I had 
no alternative but to attempt to cross the river 



1 8 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

again. If I remained where I was, certain death 
from starvation or exposure awaited me, and it 
was useless to endeavor to reach Isidoro, who 
was at least forty* miles away, for, naked as I was, 
I could not have gone even half a mile upon the 
plains in the teeth of the cold wind, which was, 
of course, still blowing. I had all this time 
thought it strange that Guillaume had not come 
to my assistance, as I had expected that he 
would have delayed crossing himself until he 
had watched the result of my own attempt. 
That he had safely crossed, however, now became 
evident, for I could see the horses grazing unsad- 
dled on the opposite side. Where he had 
crossed there was no reason why I should not be 
able to follow ; except inasmuch as he had swum 
over comparatively fresh and strong, whereas I 
had now hardly recovered from the effects of my 
first unsuccessful struggle. 

However, it was at worst but a question of 
taking another plunge, and then a few seconds 
would decide one way or the other, and after all, 
sooner or later, I should be forced to cross, as it 
was simply impossible to remain where I was. It 
was better, therefore, I reflected, to go through 
the ordeal at once, rather than increase its terrors 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



183 



by long anticipation. Screwing up my courage, 
without more ado, I started off as quickly as I 
could, to look for the place Guillaume had started 
from. At this juncture he himself suddenly ap- 
peared on the opposite bank, and guessing my 
intention, ran forward and pointed the exact 
place out to me. It was much higher up than 
where I had started from, and to get to it, as be- 
fore, I had to wade through some shallow water, 
which now and then was deep enough to oblige 
me to swim. When I reached the exact spot, I 
could easily see why he had chosen it, no doubt 
after having witnessed my mishap, for the cur- 
rent ran almost straight across from where I stood 
to the other bank, where it broke with great 
force, so that there was no danger of my being 
swept away from the bank, as before, just as I 
got up to it. I had in fact merely to jump in 
and allow myself to be swept passively over by 
the current. Notwithstanding the apparent sim- 
plicity and easiness of the undertaking, I stood 
for some time looking at the water with an in- 
stinctive dread, not daring to take the first step. 
A man who has just escaped drowning may be 
excused for fearing to trust himself, five minutes 
after, to the water again. But, feeling a chill 



! 84 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

come over my body, and apprehensive lest by 
further exposing myself to the air I should bring 
on a cramp, I nerved myself for the plunge, and, 
shutting my eyes and setting my teeth, I sprang 
into the water. Once in, all fear left me, and I 
struck out boldly, and aided by the current soon 
reached the opposite shore. 

My feelings on finding myself in safety on the 
Sandy Point side of the river may be imagined. 
All the hardships I had endured, the reverses I 
had suffered, the dangers I had undergone — all 
was forgotten in the triumphant elation of that 
moment; the fatal obstacle which had so long 
retarded our onward march was at last overcome, 
and there was nothing to prevent us now from 
speedily arriving at our destination. 

Meanwhile I staggered through the band of 
shallow water which still separated me from Guil- 
laume, who was waiting for' me with a dry capa. 
With the support of his arm I managed to reach 
a fire he had made a little distance from the wa- 
ter, and there I covered myself with three capas, 
which restored the warmth to my body quicker 
than a thousand fires could have done. 

In about half an hour I was sufficiently re- 
covered to eat an ostrich steak and to listen -to 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



185 



Guillaume's account of what had happened to 
him since we had last seen each other. He had 
watched the course of my ill-fated attempt, had 
seen me struggling for life in the water, and at 
last disappear altogether ; after which, as he had 
not seen me return, he had naturally concluded I 
was drowned. But his own safety required that 
he should not linger any longer, or the horses, 
finding themselves left to their own devices, might 
take it into their heads to run away with the furs 
and clothes. It was clear, too, that he must not 
commit the same error in the selection of his 
starting-point as had brought me into difficulties, 
and he had, therefore, followed the course of the 
river till he came to the spot I have already de- 
scribed, and which, as the result proved, possess- 
ed the necessary requirements for insuring his 
safety. Naturally enough he was not without 
some unpleasant misgivings as to the eventual re- 
sult of his own attempt, with the demoralizing 
impressions of what he had just witnessed in my 
case fresh in his mind. He had crossed with 
ease, however, and it was in going to look after 
the horses that he saw me in the act of creeping 
towards the fire on the other side. He certainly 
had not thought I should have strength enough to 



! 86 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA. 

cross the river again, and had been very much 
troubled about me, not knowing in what way to 
assist me. In the mean time he had made a good 
fire, and with the aid of the wind and sun, which 
latter had at last come from behind the clouds, 
he had thoroughly dried our clothes and furs, and 
was just considering what could be done to re- 
lieve me from my perilous plight, when he ob- 
served me running along the opposite shore with 
the obvious intention of once more trying to 
swim across. 

By this time it was about half-past two, and, 
burning with the desire to accomplish my jour- 
ney, I proposed we should continue our march 
immediately, as we might still go a good way on 
our road before sundown. I accordingly dressed; 
we saddled our horses and soon rode out of the 
valley up to the plain, turning as we reached the 
top of the escarpment which bound the valley to 
have a last look on our vanquished enemy, the 
river, now, thank God, at last behind us, and then 
facing towards the south-west we broke into a 
brisk gallop, once more en route for Sandy Point. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

WE presently came to a hilly country, where 
the plains were of shorter duration and 
cut up in all directions by steeper and more 
irregular canadas than I had hitherto met ; whilst 
occasionally we passed broad tracts of scoriae, 
which forced us, in consideration of our horses, 
to change our gallop for a soberer pace. These 
tracts grew more and more frequent as we ap- 
proached a range of high hills at whose base we 
hoped to camp that night, though as yet their 
jagged and fantastic outlines showed but dimly 
on the distant horizon. 

We passed several herds of guanacos, who fled 
away at our approach. Presently, however, one 
solitary animal, whose curiosity was stronger 
than its good sense, came neighing and frisking 
around us, halting at last almost under our very 

187 



1 8 8 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

noses. The voice of his master had hitherto 
kept back our remaining dog (the other had re- 
fused to cross the river), but this was rather more 
than he could stand, and darting out from behind 
our horses, where he had hitherto very unwill- 
ingly kept himself, he flew out at the startled 
guanaco, who, on seeing him, gave an affrighted 
bound, and stretched away over the plain with 
the speed of lightning. The dog followed pretty 
close on its heels. Our blood was up, and we 
dashed after them as fast as the horses would 
carry us, to aid the dog in case he should turn 
the guanaco round our way. For a moment 
they ran pretty evenly, but then the guanaco, 
evidently a tough old male, gradually distanced 
his pursuer, though the latter was a remarkably 
swift dog, and of very good breed. We were 
just despairing of the chase when it suddenly be- 
came apparent that the guanaco was in difficul- 
ties, his flight having been arrested by a belt of 
marshy ground, where his heavy weight immedi- 
ately put him at a great disadvantage. The 
very efforts he made to redouble the force of 
his bounds only caused his sharp hoofs to sink 
deeper into the heavy soil ; and in a few seconds 
the dog, whose speed was not so much affected 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNIRRS. 



I89 



by the nature of the ground, had reached its 
now helpless prey and flown at its throat. We 
soon came up to them, and Guillaume, dismount- 
ing, dispatched the guanaco with his long hunt- 
ing-knife. 

After all, the game turned out to be not worth 
the candle, or rather the sunlight we had lost in 
its pursuit, for it proved to be as lean of flesh as 
it had been swift of foot. We, therefore, merely 
stayed to cut off and secure its head, and then 
resumed our journey with all speed, as the sun 
was already getting low and we had still a long 
ride before us. Fate, however, seemed deter- 
mined to prevent us reaching our intended halt- 
ing-place that night. Not long after the guanaco- 
hunt an ostrich started up so close to us that 
Guillaume could not resist the temptation and 
went off in its pursuit, whilst I looked about for the 
nest. I found it to contain fourteen eggs, which 
I carefully packed up so that they should not 
break, and then rode off to meet Guillaume, who, 
I was glad to see, had the ostrich already dang- 
ling at his saddle. It turned out to be tolerably 
fat, which, considering the season, was quite a 
miracle. This piece of fortune put us into high 
spirits, and, as we remarked to each other, our 
bad luck had evidently abandoned us at last. 



190 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 



On we rode, gradually getting nearer to the 
hills, which now loomed blackly against the sky, 
for the sun had already sunk behind their sharp, 
irregular peaks, and night was coming on apace. 
We passed several large lakes, which proved to 
be salt — and gloomy and dismal they looked, 
encircled by broad belts of shingle and sand, 
with not a single bush or blade of grass in their 
blighting vicinity. Leaving them behind us, we 
stumbled on over the lava-covered ground, across 
a wild-looking plain, strewn with jagged masses 
of rock, through which our horses picked their 
way with extreme difficulty. The ruggedness of 
the country increased as we proceeded, and when 
we at last came to a break, where there was a 
small plain with plenty of grass and a pool of 
fresh water, we resolved to go no further, but to 
remain there for the night. 

We brought our saddles and traps to a clump 
of stones, which made a good shelter against the 
wind, and then hobbled one of the horses, and 
secured the other with a long cord to a heavy 
stone — a precaution not absolutely necessary, as 
after a hard day's work they do not care to stray 
far, but which we thought better to take on this 
occasion, as we were in a broken country where 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



191 



we might have a great deal of difficulty in find- 
ing them again, even if they only strayed a couple 
of hundred yards. Having made our minds easy 
on this point, we set about preparing supper, 
which, with the abundance of material at our dis- 
posal, was an easy and a grateful task. We were 
altogether in the very best of spirits that evening, 
under the influence of our unwonted good cheer, 
and at the thoughts of our speedy arrival at 
Sandy Point and the indulgences we should then 
be able to allow ourselves in such long-missed 
luxuries as coffee, sugar, bread, tobacco, etc., of 
which and similar dainties we talked till our 
mouths watered again. We reviewed the events 
of the day, too, and recounted the various im- 
pressions and feelings they had given rise to. It 
was an open question who had passed the worst 
quart d'heure, I whilst struggling in the water 
and feeling that all was over, or Guillaume when, 
after he had seen me disappear without returning, 
he reflected that he must run the same risk, and 
possibly incur the same fate. Meanwhile, having 
roasted and eaten as many eggs as we dared, we 
sought our couches, and overcome by our day's 
exertions, soon fell into a sound sleep. 

The words with which Guillaume woke me in 



I g 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

the morning brushed the sleepiness from my 
brain in an instant, and made me jump to my 
feet and stare blankly about me in utter dismay. 
"The horses have stampeded!" I said, repeating 
the sentence slowly after him, dwelling on each 
word in complete stupefaction. He nodded his 
head dejectedly, and sank down on his couch, 
and for a long time neither of us spoke, each 
giving way to his own gloomy train of thought. 

It was, indeed, a stroke of misfortune, which, 
happening as it did on the very night after we 
had overcome what we believed to be the only 
obstacle which separated us from Sandy Point, 
appeared almost in the light of an intimation that 
we were fated never to reach our destination. 

The idea took such firm hold of my mind, and 
so completely paralyzed my energy, that for a 
short space I allowed myself to give way to de- 
spair, and to a feeling of incapacity to struggle 
any longer against what in my agitation appeared 
to me a superior decree of destiny. In truth, the 
difficulties which beset us were no ordinary ones. 
We were about 150 miles from Sandy Point, no 
great distance to walk, it is true, for a strong, 
healthy man, who can depend on a supply of 
proper nourishment. But we were so weakened 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



193 



that even such a slight exertion as saddling our 
horses seemed often too much for our strength ; 
the effort required for crossing the river had been 
a spasmodic burst, which we were quite incapable 
of sustaining for any length of .time. Besides, 
we were wholly unaccustomed to walking, and 
long inaction had relaxed those muscles we now 
most required. Even then, however, it was not 
so much the actual distance which frightened me 
as the nature of the ground to be gone over. 
There were streams to be crossed, which at that 
time of the year would be swollen and perhaps 
impassable for us ; marshy grounds to be travers- 
ed, which to a man on horseback were nothing, 
but to cross which on foot implied continual wet- 
tings, and we had only four matches left, and 
therefore no means of making a fire to dry our- 
selves by when once these were used. Taking 
the uncongenial season into consideration, we 
were not wrong in doubting whether our bodies 
would stand all these hardships. With proper 
food no doubt they would, but there was another 
great difficulty. When once we had consumed 
the ostrich eggs and the meat we had left, how 
were we to procure more ? We had a dog, it is 
true, but how could we follow him on foot, when, 
13 



I9 4 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

in a few minutes, he could pursue a guanaco for 
ten miles, and run his prey to earth somewhere, 
far beyond our ken ? Besides, within a certain 
distance from Sandy Point the guanacos cease al- 
together, and ostriches are very scarce. The In- 
dians, Guillaume knew, were somewhere near the 
colony; we might, therefore, meet them on the 
road, in which case we should be all right, but on 
the other hand they might have struck towards 
the Cordilleras, which certainly would have been 
more in keeping with our general luck. What- 
ever happened, one thing was certain, and that 
was that we had a great deal of misery and hard- 
ship to face, even supposing we should have 
strength to overcome all difficulties and reach our 
destination in safety. 

All these considerations passed through my 
mind in rapid succession, but having once looked 
the situation steadily in the face and contem- 
plated it in all its bearings, my courage rose 
again and I felt it was a great deal too soon to 
despair. After all, there are very few difficul- 
ties that are not to be vanquished by determination, 
and, my momentary fit of despondency over, I 
nerved myself to face whatever new trials might be 
in store for us. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



195 



Guillaume now told me how he had risen at 
day- break and found the horses gone, the cord 
which had tied one of them being broken. 
Amongst the confused tracks he had seen foot- 
marks of a puma, a circumstance which led him 
to suppose that this animal must have frightened 
the horses during the night and caused them to 
stampede. He followed the tracks for a great 
distance, and then lost them in a plain of scoriae, 
where it was, of course, impossible to trace them 
any further. As a last chance, he had climbed 
several hills and overlooked the surrounding 
country, without, however, being able to see the 
horses anywhere ; and at last, completely ex- 
hausted, he had returned to the camp. Having 
rapidly reviewed our position, we resolved to 
commence our pilgrimage immediately, as time 
was precious in view of the poor state of our 
larder. Not a moment was to be lost — not on 
account of catching the steamer, that was no 
longer uppermost in my mind ; but we must now 
hurry over as much ground as possible daily, to 
save our lives. 

I rolled two of my capas tightly together and 
strapped them on my shoulders like a knapsack. 
Guillaume took a capa and a pair of saddle-bags, 



196 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA. 



in one side of which he put the six remaining 
eggs and in the other all that was left of the os- 
trich, which was not much after our supper of 
last night and what we had given the dog, for 
the bird, though fat, had unfortunately been 
small. With as strict an economy as was com- 
patible with keeping up our strength, we had 
enough provision to last us for four days ; after 
that, well — quien sabe ; but I had resolutely 
made up my mind not to think of the future, so 
all was right — for the present. We took our 
knives, of course, and one tin cup ; our revolvers, 
as being too heavy, we left behind us, as well as 
our saddles, beds, superfluous clothes, etc., etc., 
for the benefit of the foxes, or whoever should 
chance to find them. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

WE started off in tolerably good spirits, and it 
was well we did so, for we had to draw 
upon them considerably before the day was over. 
Our way lay over a short plain and across the 
range of hills above mentioned. For the first 
two miles all went well, but after we had climbed 
a couple of hills, I began to feel distressed. My 
burden, which at the commencement had 
weighed lightly enough, now began seriously to 
incommode me, and I asked myself, if my 
strength was already giving way before the jour- 
ney had hardly begun, how was I to reach its 
end ? Still, with closed teeth and bent brow, I 
dragged myself wearily along, determined not to 
give in. Guillaume was in no better plight than 
I. We had long since abandoned any attempt 
at conversation ; it only used up our precious 
breath and tired us the more. 



igS WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR 

At last we had to halt and rest a little, starting 
off again after a few minutes' breathing time, till 
we were again obliged to stop to collect our 
strength, and in this manner we went on all that 
afternoon, panting up steep hills, and dragging 
ourselves along over plains, which succeeded each 
other in weary monotony, and where the boister- 
ous winds, blowing full against us, obliged us to 
double our exertions. At each fresh start we 
made I had to take my whole strength together 
to nerve myself for the effort, and each start I 
made I felt would surely be the last. Somehow 
or other I kept on, however. It is wonderful 
what one can do in the face of certain alterna- 
tives. I soon suffered from another cause ; my 
feet, tender from long disuse, began to swell un- 
der these sudden exertions. I was unable, after 
suffering for some time, to keep my boots on, and 
had to continue the march barefooted, over peb- 
bles and sharp grasses which were only slightly 
less merciless than the boots had been. 

At sunset we found ourselves descending into a 
valley, where there was a small river. We had 
fortunately no necessity to cross it, as our road 
lay along the valley itself. In this region, the 
bushes, which had gradually been getting scarcer, 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



199 



ceased altogether. In the country we were about 
to traverse you may ride for leagues and leagues 
without being able to find a piece of wood big 
enough to make a toothpick with. The Indians, 
when they pass through these, always bring suffi- 
cient fire-wood with them on their pack-horses to 
last them during the transit. I can in no way ac- 
count for the absence in that particular region of 
the bushes peculiar to the rest of the country, es- 
pecially as the soil, the formation, and the atmos- 
pheric conditions seem to be the same there as in 
the rest of Patagonia. 

By the time we had gone a little way up the 
valley we were all but completely exhausted, my 
legs felt like lead, my breath came with difficulty, 
and I staggered along as if about to fall at every 
step under my pack, whose weight seemed to in- 
crease almost every step. It soon became neces- 
sary for us to halt altogether. We threw off our 
burdens and stretched ourselves on the grass to 
enjoy the luxury of a good rest before troubling 
ourselves about getting supper ready. 

But this important task could not be long de- 
ferred, especially as it was getting dark. We 
therefore began to cast about for some substitute 
for fire-wood, of which, as I have already men- 



200 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

tioned, there was absolutely none in that region. 
Guillaume consolingly remarked that as soon as 
our four matches were exhausted, we should have 
to eat our meat raw, and might as well, therefore, 
begin to do so at once. I was not of his opin- 
ion, however, feeling that the longer that un- 
pleasant necessity was deferred the better. The 
only suitable combustible we were able to find 
was the dry dung of guanacos, of which we man- 
aged to collect a good heap. We purposed to 
ignite it with some dry grass, but as we only al- 
lowed ourselves one match that day, I trembled 
for the result. Carefully sheltering it from the 
wind, the match was at length struck in safety 
and applied to the grass. It blazed up quick 
enough, but it had to be fed some time before the 
dung could be coaxed into taking fire, or rather 
smoldering, for the flame it emitted was almost 
imperceptible. With the aid of 'the wind, the 
glow gradually spread itself over the whole heap, 
and in it we managed to roast our eggs and even 
to cook some meat. The latter had a disagreea- 
ble flavor, even to our hardened palates. As 
soon as we finished our supper, we lost no time 
in getting under our capas, now our only bed, as 
the fire held out but few enticements to linger 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



201 



over it longer than was absolutely necessary for 
cooking purposes. 

At day-break the next morning we got up, and 
in the heap of dung, which was fortunately still 
glowing, we cooked some eggs and prepared for 
starting. I wrapped some pieces of cloth round 
my feet, to protect them from hurt, and then we 
saddled ourselves and continued the march. I 
felt very stiff, and altogether thoroughly done up. 
In fact, I did not think I should be able to go on 
for more than a couple of hours at most. Our 
path still lay through the valley, alongside the 
river, and we had now come to the beaten track 
to Sandy Point, made in the course of long years 
by the Indians on their annual visit to that settle- 
ment. 

Here we were pleasantly surprised by the sud- 
den apparition of a big dog, who frisked and 
jumped about us in great glee, no doubt glad to 
have met with human beings. He probably be- 
longed to some Indian, and had lost himself some- 
how in the pursuit of a guanaco, as frequently 
happens. 

This was the first gleam of sunshine after our 
late bad luck, for the poor brute was very fat, and 
we foresaw that its flesh would prove a God-send, 



202 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

if we should not happen to fall in with Indians^ 
Our other dog was not worth killing, being merely 
skin and bone. In view of his probable fate we 
called the new-comer "Infeliz" — a name to which 
he soon got to answer. He became quite at- 
tached to me, little knowing why I paid him such 
anxious attentions. 

We went on pretty well for some time ; of 
course, with the usual halts every ten minutes. 
To-day, too, the weather took it into its head to 
change; the sun became unpleasantly warm, 
which, of course, increased our fatigue considera- 
bly. At about twelve o'clock the path broke off 
from the valley, and the country assumed a threat- 
ening appearance, hill rising above hill for a long 
distance. As we had walked more than six hours 
already, we allowed ourselves a long rest before 
facing the difficulties which now lay before us. 
We felt very hungry, too, but not daring to use a 
match, we were obliged to eat some raw ostrich 
meat. I thought it had a peculiarly revolting taste, 
and more than ever I deprecated the idea of per- 
haps having to undergo a regimen of uncooked 
meat. I wondered, too, how Infeliz would taste 
raw, and felt that I certainly would not try him, 
unless pushed to the very last extremity. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



203 



When we felt somewhat restored we arose, 
carefully collected the fragments of our meal, and 
then continued our wearisome journey. The path 
now lay across a succession of hills, or undula- 
tions, which were very steep and told fearfully 
upon us. We would rest a while on the crest of 
each, and then go at the next one with a rush, 
our teeth set and eyes bent on its summit, for if 
we flinched once on our upward course, or halted 
but a moment, we were done for, and had to take 
another rest previous to collecting our strength 
for a new spurt. Several times I thought I must 
give in, and at last I could literally hardly move 
one leg before the other. The perspiration rolled 
off my forehead in streams, and the weight of 
my capas seemed to break my back. Still we 
set ourselves a certain goal, which was yet a long 
way off; and though I was inwardly wishing that 
Guillaume would give in, I was determined not 
to be first to speak, but to go on as long as he 
did whilst there was a step left in me. I believe 
he was in the same plight as I was, but kept on 
for the same reasons. At last a higher hill than 
usual fairly brought us to a regular stand-still, and 
we threw ourselves down, feeling that, for that 
day at least, we could go no further. 



2 04 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

We lay motionless for about half an hour, when 
I rose to take off my pack, and in so doing per- 
ceived a column of smoke, not far, at least to all 
appearance, from where we were. My shout of 
joyful surprise brought Guillaume to his feet, and 
we both examined it for some time, half doubting 
our own eyes, and fearful lest every moment it 
should prove a delusion. Neither were our feel- 
ings of pleasure wholly unmitigated by certain 
apprehensions that it might be some old fire that 
had been lit two or three days ago, and which 
was now burning up again. Guillaume told me 
that he had known fires to smolder on in grassy 
glens for weeks together. It might be but an 
hour old, and yet those who had made it were, 
perhaps, already miles away in some direction, 
far from the path we must follow, and we could 
not signalize our own whereabouts, as the country 
we were then crossing was bare of grass and 
bushes. Our doubts, however, were speedily set 
at rest. Even as we watched the first column 
with eager eyes, another rose up not far from it, 
and another still, and then we knew that the fires 
were being made by Indians, who were hunting 
on the plains. A little to the left of the smoke 
was a place called the " Campo de Batalla," where 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



205 



the Indians always camp when in that neighbor- 
hood, and to it we accordingly directed our steps, 
as we were almost certain to find them there. 
The vicinity of human beings gave us new 
strength, all fatigue disappeared as if by magic, 
the hills, hitherto so formidable, seemed to shrink 
into pigmy mounds, my pack became light as a 
feather, and the rags round my feet seemed sud- 
denly to possess the virtues of the famed seven- 
mile boots. Not only should we be able to get 
horses from the Indians, but as they must have 
recently left the settlement, they would have 
plenty of tobacco, mate, sugar, and biscuit, with 
the thought of which I charmed away any re- 
lapse into exhaustion, which, as hill followed hill 
in endless succession, now and then again threat- 
ened to overcome me. At last, about four o'clock, 
we descended into a valley, a sudden turn of 
which brought us in full view of the Indian en- 
campment. My heart bounded at the sight of 
the tents, amongst which I could descry dark 
human figures in long robes, moving slowly to 
and fro ; hundreds of horses were grazing in the 
valley, whilst the yelping of the swarms of curs 
that infest the Indian camps fell on my ears like 
pleasant music. 



2o6 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

The Indians were just returning from the chase, 
and were pouring down from the plains on all 
sides. They soon perceived us, and presenly fifty 
or more horsemen came flying towards us at full 
gallop, and in another moment we were sur- 
rounded by a chattering, laughing, gesticulating 
crowd, who escorted us towards the camp in tri- 
umph. One of their number, who could speak a 
little Spanish, asked us a thousand questions, the 
answer to which he translated for the benefit of 
the others, to whom every item of information 
seemed to furnish an excuse for the most un- 
bounded merriment ; they would all giggle and 
laugh, though what I had to say to them did not 
contain anything extraordinarily funny, at least 
as far as my perception of the humorous goes. 

When we reached the camp we were sur- 
rounded by another crowd of Indians, as eagerly 
curious as the first comers to know where we 
came from, what we had done with our horses, 
and where we were going to — in fact, all partic- 
ulars as to our situation. As soon as one group 
left another arrived, and in this manner we ran 
the gauntlet of the whole of the camp, every one 
apparently deeming it incumbent on him to come 
and have a good stare and grin at us. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



20/ 



Having satisfied their curiosity, we felt our- 
selves at liberty to consult our own comfort, and 
Guillaume, having discovered the whereabouts of 
the tent of a cacique of the name of Orkeke, with 
whom he was on intimate terms, we directed our 
steps towards it. Orkeke himself we found had 
not as yet returned from the chase, but his wife, 
an immensely fat and good-humored looking old 
squaw, accosted us in some friendly gutturals, of 
which the evident purport was that we were to 
make ourselves at home, an intimation on which 
we speedily acted. With a deep sigh of relief I 
divested myself of the pack under whose weight 
I had. trudged for so many a weary mile, and, 
stretching myself out on the ground, I inwardly 
congratulated myself that the unpleasant episode 
of our foot pilgrimage was fortunately a thing of 
the past. 

We had now, for the first time since we had 
seen the smoke, leisure to muse over our provi- 
dential delivery from the serious danger that had 
threatened us — a danger whose full magnitude 
only became apparent now that we had no longer 
to fear it. But these thoughts did not occupy us 
long; very soon Orkeke arrived, heavily laden 
with the spoils of the chase. He seemed very 



208 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

pleased to see us, and greeted us affably in 
broken Spanish. To the story of our mishaps he 
listened with great interest, and when I told him 
that I had not taken mate or smoked for several 
weeks, he showed particular concern, and imme- 
diately produced a pipe and tobacco and bade 
me smoke, at the same time telling his wife to 
prepare mate, remarking very justly, "No fumar, 
no tomar mate ; muy malo ! " Smokers will 
feel with me when I say that my hand trembled 
whilst filling my pipe, and that having lit it, I sat 
for a few minutes in a state of semi-ecstasy, en- 
veloped in a fragrant cloud of the long-missed 
soul-soother. The mate, too, seemed delicious, 
and as a great treat, from a bag which contained 
similar treasures, Orkeke brought forth a musty 
biscuit, which he broke into three pieces, sol- 
emnly handing a share to Guillaume and me. 
The biscuit was coarse and black and hard, no 
doubt, but it melted away on my lips like a 
meringue > nor did I allow one crumb of it to be 
lost. 

Orkeke was an admirable specimen of the 
Tehuelche race. He was tall and well propor- 
tioned, and, notwithstanding his great age, ex- 
tremely vigorous and agile. His long gray hair 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



209 



and the benign expression of his face gave him 
the look of a venerable patriarch — a character 
which he rather affected to maintain. He was 
careful to inform me at an early stage of our 
acquaintance that he never got drunk, like other 
Indians, that he never told a lie, and that his 
father had been converted to Christianity — a cir- 
cumstance which he evidently considered to re- 
flect in some way meritoriously on himself. On 
my asking him why he had not followed his 
father's example and become a Christian too, 
after a long pause he answered rather vaguely, 
"Quien sabe." I did not press the question any 
further, as the Indians who speak Spanish always 
make use of this expression when puzzled, or 
when they do not care to give a direct reply, and 
if once they proffer it as an answer, it is perfectly 
useless to attempt to elicit anything more explicit 
from them. 

Orkeke told me that he remembered perfectly 
well having paid a visit to St. Julian, as a boy, 
when the Spanish colonists of Viedma were yet 
there. If that were true, and I have no reason to 
doubt his word, his age was now at least ninety- 
six or ninety-seven, and, judging by his looks, I 
thought he might easily live twenty or thirty 
14 



2io WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

years longer. His movements were as easy and 
free from effort as those of a young man. In- 
deed, I should imagine few climates are healthier 
or more favorable to longevity than that of Pat- 
agonia ; its crisp, dry air has a peculiarly benefi- 
cent effect both on mind and body, and under its 
influence one experiences a buoyancy of spirits 
and a general well-being which are quite aston- 
ishing. 

Orkeke spoke Spanish with tolerable fluency, 
and I was able to have a long conversation with 
him on various topics, during which I gleaned 
some interesting information about the customs 
and thoughts of the Indians. 

The tribe I was now amongst was more nu- 
merous than that of the Northern Tehuelches, 
but it seemed to me that they were, on the aver- 
age, slightly inferior in physique to the North- 
erners, and certainly there were not so many 
pretty squaws among them as among the latter. 
Otherwise there was no marked distinction be- 
tween them. The camp consisted of twelve 
tents, containing in all from four to five hundred 
souls. The whole tribe, I found, had just been 
paying their annual visit to Sandy Point, to re- 
ceive the rations of sugar, biscuit, mate, and to- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



211 



bacco, which the Chilian Government accords 
them. These visits generally cost them rather 
dear, as the inhabitants of the colony on these 
occasions make a rich harvest of furs and feath- 
ers, with which, under the influence of agua- 
diente, the Indians are then extremely prodigal. 

I made Orkeke promise to get me two horses 
the next morning, in order that we might imme- 
diately continue our journey, and having eaten a 
hearty supper, I went to sleep on a couch of furs 
which Mrs. Orkeke had prepared for me, and, 
notwithstanding the incessant squalling of babies 
in various parts of the tent, I managed to pass a 
tolerable night. 

The next morning, as soon as Orkeke had 
risen, I asked him to get the horses in readiness, 
as I was leaving at once. But there was an un- 
pleasant surprise in store for me. Orkeke 
seemed to have no remembrance of what he had 
promised the previous evening, and coolly told 
me that he could not lend me any of his horses, 
as, according to him, they were all " thin and 
tired." "Mi caballo, muy flaco, muy cansado," 
was all I could get out of him in reply to my 
indignant demands for an explanation of the un- 
accountable change in his intentions. In vain I 



2 1 2 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

argued, entreated, and stormed ; in vain I offered 
to pay him double the sum we had previously 
agreed on — nothing would move him, and finally 
I gave up pressing the matter, directing my en- 
ergies instead to discovering some more accom- 
modating Indian. 

My task was not an easy one, and I soon found 
out that to drive a bargain with an Indian one 
must have the patience of Job and the temper of 
an angel. It is next to an impossibility to get a 
plain " yes " or " no " out of them, as they have 
an insuperable aversion to committing themselves 
finally, either one way or the other. The conse- 
quence is that one may haggle with them for 
hours without arriving at any result, and without 
even being able to judge whether one is likely to 
arrive at any, so vague and circumlocutory are 
their answers. Unfortunately, too, I was obliged 
to employ an interpreter, thus reducing still fur- 
ther the chances of my coming to any definite 
understanding. 

After having interviewed some forty Indians, 
who all, after more or less vacillation and delay, 
proffered the stereotyped objection, " Mi caballo, 
muy flaco," I began to despair of succeeding at 
all, and, as a last resource, went back to Or- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



213 



keke, who, I hoped, might possibly have changed 
his mind and become less obdurate. But the ob- 
stinate old cacique was inexorable, and calmly 
recommended me to wait patiently for a few 
days, as very soon some traders would be com- 
ing from the colony. He could not understand 
that any one could possibly be in a hurry. In- 
dians never are ; and I have no doubt that the 
fact of my being in such a desperate haste to get 
away awoke some suspicions in his mind as to my 
motives, and inclined him to persist in his refusal 
to accommodate me. I was at my wits' end. 
Nothing could be further from my intentions 
than to wait with the Indians till some trader 
should come to the camp. The very thought 
made me furious. I had not risked crossing Gal- 
legos for that, and yet I must either remain or 
start off on foot — neither of which prospects I 
contemplated with much satisfaction. 

Though my own attempts had failed, I thought 
that perhaps Orkeke might be able to negotiate 
more successfully for the hire of two horses from 
some one amongst his acquaintances ; and, as an 
inducement for him to exert himself in my behalf, 
I offered to give him a guanaco mantle. My 
proposal set him thinking and presently he said, 



2 1 4 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

" I know Indian — very rich man — three hundred 
horses — quien sabe, he lend you two." Of 
course I jumped at the suggestion, and proposed 
that we should immediately go and see this great 
and good man — the owner of three hundred 
horses. But Orkeke met my impetuosity with 
a tantalizing " Mas tarde," and I had to restrain 
my impatience for more than an hour, during the 
course of which I relieved my feelings with many 
a bitter imprecation at Tehuelche supineness. 
At last Orkeke seemed to have nerved himself 
for the tremendous effort, and signified to me 
that he was ready to accompany me to the tent 
of the rich man. I approached this awful being, 
whom I found reclining at ease on his furs, with 
feelings of the deepest respect, for did he not 
hold the means of relieving me from the serious 
and aggravating plight which fate and the ob- 
stinacy of his brethren had brought me into ? 

Orkeke conversed with him for some time — 
very leisurely and unconcernedly, I thought, con- 
sidering the gravity of the issue of the negotia- 
tions, and then, turning to me, he asked me to 
tell his friend, who understood Spanish, what I 
wanted. 

I began. " You have plenty horses?" 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



21$ 



" Yes, plenty." 

" Quien sabe, you lend me two ?." 

Here a long pause, during which I anxiously 
endeavored to read the answer to my question in 
the face of the Indian. But its expression was 
a blank. Presently he suggested, 

" How much you pay ?" 

" Oh, plenty sugar, plenty biscuit, plenty sil- 
ver dollar," I exclaimed, gesticulating to an un- 
limited extent and radiant with satisfaction, as 
now I thought the matter had taken a practical 
and final turn. 

" Bueno ! But how send back horses to In- 
dian ? " 

" Guillaume come back with horses and pres- 
ents from colony in six days." 

Here another long pause. The Indian seemed 
to be looking at some object on the hill fifty 
miles away, apparently oblivious of my presence. 
As he did not offer to resume the conversation, 
after a while I suggested cheerfully, 

" Very well, all is settled ; you go and fetch 
the horses, whilst I prepare my things and get 
ready to leave." To my surprise he did not re- 
spond to my suggestion as readily as I had ex- 
pected. I presumed I was going too quickly for 



2 1 6 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

him, and accordingly I modified my proposal 
this wise : " Quien sabe, when will you fetch 
horses for me ? " 

Still no answer; the object on the hills still 
claimed his undivided attention. I waited. pa- 
tiently, wonderfully patiently, for a reply, though 
now and then in the course of the quarter of an 
hour's silence which ensued I did feel that it 
would have been an unspeakable relief to have 
given my nonchalant friend just one little cut 
with my whip. We cannot all have the disposi- 
tion of saints. 

I contented myself, after the lapse of time men- 
tioned, with repeating, "Quien sabe, when will 
you fetch horses for me ? " 

Then fell on my ears " some words, which 
were warning of doom ! " — " Mi caballo, muy 
flaco, muy cansado." 

After having had my hopes raised to the high- 
est point of expectation, to see them thus sud- 
denly dashed to the ground for some mere whim 
and without a show of reason, was more than 
flesh and blood could stand ; I regret to say that 
I lost my temper and hurled at the passive In- 
dian a shower of furious imprecations. I am 
bound to say, however, that they did not seem to 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



21/ 



have the slightest effect upon him, and merely 
provoked a chorus of mocking laughter from the 
squaws. I went away in a high dudgeon, and 
my reflections after I had cooled down a little 
were not rendered any pleasanter by the confes- 
sion I had to make to myself, that I had no busi- 
ness to lose my temper, as, after all, the Indian 
had a perfect right to do as he chose with his 
own. Still it was rather exasperating that, much 
as I wanted them, with two thousand horses graz- 
ing in the ravine around me, I could not obtain 
two. 

Fortunately relief was near at hand. I was 
just discussing with Guillaume what was to be 
done next, when Orkeke came up to us and said 
that a scout had just arrived and had told him 
that a white man was camping at a lake some 
eighteen miles away, and that for a consideration 
he would lend us a couple of horses to take us so 
far. 

In half an hour horses to take us to the lake 
were driven up, and having made some small 
presents to Mrs. Orkeke and her family, I hastily 
left, fearing lest acting on some new caprice Or- 
keke might at the last moment find some pretext 
for taking the horses away from us again. 



CHAPTER XV. 

AT last we said good-bye to the Indians and 
set out, accompanied by a man who was to 
take the horses back, en route for a lake called 
the " Laguna del Finado Romero," after an ill- 
fated white man, who, like ourselves had lost his 
horses in the pampa, and, unluckier than we had 
been, had failed to fall in with any one on the 
road, and had finally died of starvation near the 
lake that now bears his name. 

Our horses were lean, overworked and broken- 
winded, and we were obliged to ride bare-backed, 
as the Indians had refused to lend us saddles ; but 
we cared little for such slight drawbacks in the joy 
of once more being able to look forward with 
certainty to a speedy arrival at our destination. 

We had only been on foot for three days, but 
looking back it seemed to me an age since I had 
218 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 \g 

last bestrode a horse, and the pleasure I experi- 
enced as we broke into a tolerably swift gallop 
was heightened by the remembrance of those 
unpleasant days during which we trudged wearily 
along on foot, esteeming it a great triumph if we 
successfully scaled some pigmy hill without hav- 
ing to lay down two or three times to take 
breath ; and when we hardly dared look at the 
vast expanse of plain before us, lest we should 
lose courage at the sight. Contrasted with that 
period of our journey, our present situation was 
all coiileur de rose. Our sorry nags seemed gifted 
with the fleetness of the wind, their distressed 
puffing sounded in our ears like the proud snort- 
ing of the fiery steed scenting the chase, and 
their irregular pace, half gallop, half stumble, 
seemed as soft and pleasant as the gentle amble 
of a pampered park hack. 

After about three hours' sharp riding we 
reached the lake, beside which was pitched the 
tent of the white man of whom the Indians had 
told us. The barking of the dogs warned him 
of our approach, and he came out to meet us, 
not a little astonished at our appearance, as the 
Indians had told him that the Gallegos had risen, 
and, of course, he had not imagined that any one 



2 20 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

could have come from Santa Cruz. He kindly 
welcomed us into his tent, where the first thing 
that struck my eye, as smacking pleasantly of civ- 
ilization, was an empty preserved-milk tin. Our 
new host, whose name was Emilio, was an old ac- 
quaintance of Guillaume's, and he very kindly 
offered to lend us horses to continue our journey 
to Sandy Point with, as the Indian was returning 
with those we had come on. 

As the weather looked very threatening, and 
big rain-drops were already beginning to fall, we 
thought it best to defer our start for another day, 
feeling that, in one way and another, we had had 
quite enough wettings lately. 

The tent we now found ourselves in seemed 
"fitted up with all modern conveniences"; in- 
deed, Emilio appeared to be, as he in reality was, 
rather an amateur than a professional ostrich- 
hunter, and his neat riding-suit and general clean 
appearance made me for the first time painfully 
conscious of the strange scarecrow figure I must 
have made in the eyes of a civilized human being. 
The pampa had dealt rather roughly with my 
wardrobe. I was hatless, shoeless, coatless, having 
tossed away or lost all these necessary articles of 
wear at various periods of my peregrinations. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 2I 

My shirt and trousers were tattered and torn ; 
my hair, which had been a stranger to the comb 
for weeks, was long and matted ; and my face, 
from continual exposure to sun and wind, had 
become of a deep Tehuelche brown. Fortunate- 
ly, no excuses for my appearance were necessary, 
and, having dismissed our Indian friend with his 
horses, we sat down in the tent to discuss some 
mate and a pipe, over which luxuries Emilio sat- 
isfied my voracious appetite for news of the war 
in the East, and with. such items of information as 
he had picked up lately in Sandy Point. 

Touching the dinner-hour, which was now ap- 
proaching, he told us that his companion had 
gone to the settlement ten days ago to fetch pro- 
visions, and as he had not yet come back, he — 
Emilio — had run short of everything, and had 
not so much as a biscuit in the place — a piece of 
information which gave me a shock, which I trust 
I bore with more outward composure than my 
inner feelings warranted. However, when dinner 
was served, matters turned out to be better than 
Emilio had represented, and our hearts were 
gladdened over a puchero of guanaco meat, seas- 
oned with onions, pepper, and salt, and other old 
acquaintances, whose want we had lately so often 
and so feelingly deplored. 



222 WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 

Darkness came on soon after dinner was over, 
and we were accordingly not long in turning in. 
All through the night there was a heavy down- 
pour of rain, and as I listened to it pattering on 
the canvas of our tent, snugly rolled up in my 
warm capa, I thought, with a shudder, in what a 
different plight I should have then been had we 
not had the good fortune to meet the Indians. 
Instead of lying warm and dry under the shelter 
of the tent, we should doubtless have been 
stretched somewhere on the muddy ground, in 
damp clothes and soaking furs, hungry and sleep- 
less, and exposed to the inclemency of the weath- 
er without even the means of making a fire. 

The next day the rain cleared off at about ten 
o'clock, and Emilio, who was anxious to know 
what had become of his companion, resolved to 
accompany us, leaving his tent and horses in 
charge of a servant On the previous day I had 
felt little inconvenience from riding bare-backed, 
the satisfaction of having a horse at all far out- 
weighing the consideration of any minor discom- 
forts. But to-day I could no longer remain cal- 
lous to the inconvenience and pain of bumping 
up and down hour after hour on the back of a not 
over well- conditioned horse. After the first few 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



223 



miles the sensation experienced became extremely 
unpleasant, and gradually developed into a species 
of mild torture — to culminate, after galloping 
some thirty miles, in the most excruciating an- 
guish the mind can conceive of. However, we 
were not to be stopped by mere pain, and jogged 
along as best we could. 

The country we now traversed began to differ 
essentially from the regions I had hitherto passed 
through. The monotonous alternation of plains 
and ravines gave way to a not less monotonous 
succession of soft swells or undulations. The 
height of the crest of such was about twenty feet, 
and the soil which covered them, judging from the 
appearance of the grass, seemed of a more fer- 
tile nature than that of the country further north. 
As yet, however, there was no appearance of any 
new species of bush. Occasionally an ostrich 
would start up at our approach ; but already we 
began to miss the familiar sight of the guanacos, 
which are, until one arrives as far south as we 
now were, an inevitable feature of a Patagonian 
landscape. 

After emerging from this undulating tract, the 
transit of which occupied several hours, we came 
into an irregularly formed country, abounding in 



224 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

fresh water lakes, which were covered with wild 
geese and ducks. Here the calafate bushes 
seemed to grow stronger and healthier looking, 
and the now green grass, growing in abundance 
everywhere, gave an unaccustomed look of fer- 
tility to the country. We were not far from 
Cape San Gregorio, and occasionally we could 
catch a hazy glimpse of the sea. 

Meantime evening came on, and we began to 
look about for a favorable place to camp at for 
the night. In casting about we observed a thin 
column of smoke arising from a small gorge some 
little way ahead. Thither we accordingly rode, 
and presently came upon a young fellow who 
was just making a fire, he having evidently ar- 
rived a few minutes ago. His horses were graz- 
ing about the canon. He started up at our ap- 
proach and greeted us very cordially, Guillaume 
being an old acquaintance of his. He turned 
out to be a Frenchman, and had formerly been 
cook to the governor of Sandy Point, but had 
subsequently taken to ostrich-hunting and trad- 
ing with the Indians as more congenial pursuits. 

He was a very pleasant and lively companion, 
and we had a very cheerful evening together. 
Besides, at dinner he gave us some specimens of 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 2$ 

his art which stamped him as a master, or at least 
I thought so then. I actually found a laurel-leaf 
in the puchero of this epicurean ostrich- hunter, 
and presently he turned out an omelette aux fines 
herbes, which might have been prepared in a 
royal kitchen instead of in the desert, over a 
smoky, green-wood fire, by the doubtful light of 
a few stars. As he kindly offered to lend us 
horses to go on with, there was no necessity for 
Emilio to accompany us any further, especially as 
through our new acquaintance he had got news 
of the coming of his absent companion. Before 
we went to bed, therefore, I thanked him for his 
kindness and said good-bye to him, as Guillaume 
and I intended starting about three o'clock in the 
morning, in order to get to Sandy Point the 
same night. We started thus early as there was 
an arm of the sea to cross, which, if we hap- 
pened to reach it at high water, might detain us 
for several hours. I also took leave of our host, 
and then we all went to sleep through what 
I hoped was to be my last night on the pampa. 

When the position of the stars seemed to indi- 
cate its being about three o'clock, Guillaume and 
I, after a hasty cup of coffee, bridled the horses 
that had been lent to us, and waving a silent 
IS 



226 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

adieu to our sleeping companions, we rode off 
through the darkness towards the Cabeza del 
Mar, or " Head of the Sea/' which we hoped to 
reach at low water. We were not so well 
mounted as the day before, as we soon discov- 
ered to our cost. My horse, in particular, was a 
lean, raw-boned animal, with a terribly rough 
gallop, and as the trail had now become swampy 
and full of holes, it would occasionally stumble 
and throw me forward in a most punishing man- 
ner, and I suffered even more than the day be- 
fore from the want of a saddle. Meanwhile the 
darkness slowly gave way to dawn, and by the 
time the sun had risen we reined in our panting 
horses, on whom the steep hills and heavy 
ground had told severely, at the rocky shores of 
the Cabeza del Mar. The water was at ebb tide, 
and we had to wait an hour or two before we 
could cross over. Cabeza del Mar, marked on 
the Admiralty charts as Peckett's Harbor, is an 
inlet of the sea which runs for some distance into 
the interior. 

Having crossed over without any accident, we 
again continued our journey at a gallop. The 
ground was very soft, and for miles was half un- 
der water. At one spot my horse sank into 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



227 



a quagmire, and it was only with the greatest 
difficulty that I finally got it out again. Alto- 
gether our horses, which were very thin and in 
wretched condition, began to show signs of dis- 
tress as the hours wore on, and at times we were 
apprehensive lest they would not be able to reach 
Sandy Point. Still we splashed on through mire 
and water without sparing whip or spur. Now 
and then we caught sight of the sea, and when 
the rising wind swept away the mist which ob- 
scured the horizon, the snow-clad peaks of the 
distant Cordilleras showed plainly against the 
blue sky. We hailed them with delight, for we 
knew that at the foot of the last spur lay Sandy 
Point. 

Presently we passed a stunted clump of 
beeches standing in the midst of the bare plain, 
like an advanced picket of the dense forests 
which, a little further south, clothe the sides of 
the straits and the broad slopes of the Cordilleras. 
After having passed so many weeks without hav- 
ing seen any vegetation but the grass and low 
scrub of the pampas, the sight of these beeches 
was indescribably refreshing and cheering, and 
produced the same exhilarating effect on us as 
the sudden appearance of land after a long sea- 



228 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

voyage does on the traveler, weary of the eternal 
sameness of sea and sky. 

On we went, leaving the beeches behind us, 
over a broad grass-covered plain, now half under 
water and a mere swamp, the distant hills grow- 
ing gradually more and more distinct. By this 
time I had grown as tired as my horse, and had 
left off the use of either whip or spur, as it 
seemed to take no notice of them, just jogging 
along at its own pace, a kind of slinging shuffle, 
varied now and then by a lurch forward, as if 
about to fall — an ending to our ride which would 
not have surprised me in the least, considering 
the condition of the poor animal and the distance 
we had gone since morning. But the Patagonian 
horses are wonderfully hardy, and can do an 
astonishing amount of work in a condition which 
makes it seem doubtful whether they will be able 
to carry their own weight. This was the case 
with those we were now riding, which were mere 
skin and bone, and yet we had been already nine 
hours on the road, scaling steep hills, and stag- 
gering over swampy, heavy ground of the most 
trying nature. 

Time went on, the beeches became more fre- 
quent, and finally we arrived at the foot of a 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



229 



thickly-wooded hill, which seemed to mark the 
commencement of a totally new region, for 
whereas hitherto all vegetation had been scarce 
and stunted, it now became comparatively varied 
and luxuriant. Following a beaten track, we 
rode up the hill through a glade of beeches 
which were just bursting into leaf. On reaching 
its summit I paused, for suddenly flashed on my 
gaze, lying at the foot of the hill on whose crest 
I now stood, the shining waters of the Straits of 
Magellan. With avidity I feasted my eyes, 
wearied of the eternal monotony of the pampa 
horizon, on the varied and sunlit scene before me. 
In strange contrast to the bare plains I had just 
left was the bold outline of the winding coast, 
which sank abruptly down, green with dense 
foliage, to the very edge of the foaming water, 
whilst in the background rose the gigantic ridges 
of the Cordilleras, their sharply cut and snow-clad 
peaks standing plainly defined on the for once 
cloudless sky. 

On the opposite side of the straits the tall 
cliffs of Terra del Fuego were plainly visible, and 
presently emerging from a bend in the coast a 
little schooner came skimming down, with all her 
sails set, and her colors flying, bound, no doubt, 
for the neighboring Falkland Islands. 



230 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

But time was precious, as we wanted to get tc 
Sandy Point before night-time, and off we 
started again, down the precipitous side of the 
hill, the bottom of which we reached after many 
a slip and stumble, the melting of the snows hav- 
ing carried away whole lengths of what had been 
a beaten pathway. The farm-house of Cabo 
Negro now came in sight, and near it, grazing at 
their ease in the fresh young grass, were herds 
of horses and cattle. As their familiar lowing fell 
on my ears, my heart quite warmed towards the 
sleek-coated, gentle- eyed cows, and I bestowed a 
kindly greeting on them in passing, quite as if 
they had been human beings. But to me at that 
moment they represented something more than 
mere milk and butter in perspective (though that 
consideration was not altogether absent from my 
mind). In their staid, respectable demeanor, so 
different from the wild capers and antics of my 
late friends, the guanacos, I recognized the 
softening influences of civilization, and in my 
present mood I was only too glad to be able to 
hail its presence under any symbol, even though 
it were but in the lowly guise of a simple-minded 
cow. 

On reaching the farm-house we dismounted 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



231 



for a while, in order to give our horses the rest 
they sorely needed. The owner, Lieutenant 
Gallegos, received us very kindly, and asked us 
into the house to take some refreshment. Whilst 
the meal was being prepared I explained to him 
the circumstances which had brought us into the 
strange plight in which he beheld us, our saddle- 
less nags and our dilapidated appearance having 
naturally aroused his curiosity. He was not 
surprised to hear of the unusually high flood at 
Gallegos, as, on the melting of the snows, there 
had been great inundations all round the colony, 
and an unprecedented snow-fall during the 
winter. The winter itself had been of unusual 
duration, for although it was now almost summer- 
time, until a few days since, like ourselves, they 
had experienced regular wintry weather. In the 
mean time a repast had been served, and I sat 
down, actually on a chair, and ate off a plate with 
knife and fork, feeling quite awkward and bear- 
ish, as if I had till then never enjoyed such lux- 
uries. However, this feeling soon wore off, and 
before I had finished my meal I felt quite at 
home again. As soon as we had exhausted our 
respective budgets of news, we said good-bye to 
Lieutenant Gallegos and remounted our horses, 



232 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

who had profited by the short respite allowed 
them, and had become tolerably fresh again. 

Our path now lay along the Straits of Magel- 
lan. The water almost washed our horses' feet 
as we rode along the narrow path, for the main- 
land falls almost vertically down to the water's 
edge, and is covered with a dense, impenetrable 
mass of trees and bushes, the latter chiefly of the 
magnolia species, and one is forced to keep on 
the meagre strip of stony beach, which in some 
places is hardly three feet broad. This narrow 
track was further occasionally obstructed by 
trunks of beech trees and other drift-wood, torn 
probably from the land on the opposite side, and 
swept thither by the sea in its angry moods ; and 
sometimes a still more formidable hinderance 
would present itself in the shape of a landslip, with 
a whole slice of virgin forest torn away with it, the 
trees, bushes, and creepers still green and flour- 
ishing. In these cases, where the soil had already 
been washed away by the sea, all the less dura- 
ble vegetation having long mouldered away, a 
prey to the wind and waves, only the dead trees 
remained, looking sad and ghastly in their un- 
tombed nakedness — some fallen, others still up- 
right, but leaning against each other in forlorn 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



233 



helplessness, their white, bare roots firmly inter- 
laced, and their long, dry arms rattling against 
each other in the wind, like the bones of so many 
skeletons. 

Following its numerous bends, we rode along 
the beach for about three hours, and then in 
measure as we approached the long sandy strip of 
land which stretches out into the sea, and which 
has given the name of Sandy Point to the settle- 
ment, the beach got broader, the fall of the land 
less abrupt, and the forest gradually lightened, 
till, reaching the government saw-mill, which is 
situated at about six miles from the colony, we 
came to an open plain, studded here and there 
with beeches, across which we galloped for some 
time, and, finally having forded one or two small 
streams, we at last arrived in sight of the town it- 
self. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE colony of Magellan was founded by the 
Chilian Government in the year 185 1. The 
population of Sandy Point, including the convicts 
and garrison, and the Swiss settlers of Agna 
Fresca, numbered, at the time I am speaking of, 
about eight hundred souls. The town lies at the 
foot of a high ridge of hills facing the straits. It 
contained a fort, a church, and some .tolerable- 
looking government buildings, but, excepting 
one or two streets in the lower part of the town, 
the rest of the place had a poor, straggling ap- 
pearance, the houses being mostly one-storied 
wooden shanties, and the streets grass- grown and 
hillocky, with here and there the stump of a beech 
tree sticking up from the ground. But to me, as 
I rode through it just before sundown, tired and 
fagged with my day's ride, it looked pleasant and 
234 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



235 



cheerful enough, for it held out promises of shel- 
ter, rest, and good cheer, after a long, weary time 
of exposure and hardship, and it was, besides, a 
connecting link with the outer world, to reach 
which had been my only thought for weeks — 
weeks which, as I looked back on them, in the 
variety of sensation and incident which had 
marked their course, seemed almost so many 
years. 

I rode slowly up the main street, letting my 
eyes wander leisurely over the unaccustomed 
sights which everywhere met my gaze, and which 
I greeted inwardly one by one, as it were renew- 
ing an old acquaintance. The shops with their 
many wares displayed in the windows, the knots 
of drinkers standing at the bars, which in Sandy 
Point grace every establishment, be it a butcher's 
or a baker's or a tailor's ; the little children play- 
ing about the streets ; the housewives taking in 
their little washing from the clothes line, and do- 
ing a great deal of gossip over it, as is their wont ; 
the cows coming lowing down from the woods 
with their calves, and going to their respective 
homes to be milked ; the loungers in collars and 
neckties (strange sight), who stared at me as I 
went past — everything and everybody came in 



236 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

for a share of my attention. Each one sight 
helped to confirm the complacent feeling of se- 
curity from further danger which had come over 
me since I passed the Cabo Negro farm-house. 
The turn in the long lane had come at last, the 
chapter of accidents was over, and, like the heroes 
of the fairy tales, I was to live happy ever after. 
Alas for human foresight ! Could I have fore- 
seen the events which in a few hours were to take 
place, in all probability I should then and there 
have turned my horse round and ridden with all 
speed back to the pampas. But if coming events 
do cast their shadows before them, it is very sel- 
dom that our imperfect mental vision can per- 
ceive them, and certainly there was no forecast of 
the horrors of the coming day in the atmosphere 
of the settlement of Sandy Point, on the evening 
of that 10th of November. People came and 
went, and laughed and talked with each other, 
just as usual, little thinking that by that time to- 
morrow they would be flying from their pillaged 
and burning homes, with their wives and children, 
and that the colony, now so tranquil and peace- 
ful, would to-morrow be delivered into the hands 
of a set of sanguinary ruffians, free to indulge in 
their worst passions unchecked. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 $7 

There are no inns at Sandy Point, visitors be- 
ing of rare occurrence, so we put up at the house 
of an Austrian, named Pedro, who had formerly- 
been an Indian trader, and now kept a small shop. 
After having indulged in the luxury of a warm 
bath and a shave, and having made some suitable 
changes in my raiment, I sat down to dine with 
Pedro. The havoc I made amongst cheeses, fresh 
butter, bread, jam, etc., was tremendous. I think, 
and it is an important consideration which strange 
to say has escaped even Brillat-Savarin, that 
every man who has any pretensions to consider- 
ing himself a gastronome, should make it a su- 
preme duty to give his palate a complete rest at 
least once a year, and subsist for a month or two 
on as poor a diet as is compatible with keeping 
body and soul together. His temporary self-de- 
nial will be more than repaid by the renewed sen- 
sibility of his palate, which will result from such 
a course, and he will return to his favorite dishes 
with that fresh zest and exquisite enjoyment 
which is vouchsafed to most people only in the 
palmy hey-day of their school-boy appetites. 

After dinner I lost no time in going to bed. I 
had been fifteen hours, not in the saddle, but lit- 
erally on horseback, and I was weary enough as 



238 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

may be supposed. I felt, as I lay down on my 
bed, that I had well earned a good night's rest, 
and was but little prepared for the rude awaken- 
ing in store for me. 

Towards midnight I was aroused by a noise 
which at first I took for thunder, but which on 
repetition, to my astonishment, proved to be the 
report of cannon. While I was still listening and 
wondering what could be the matter, Guillaume 
came hurriedly into the room and cried: "The 
convicts and the soldiers have mutinied, and are 
firing on the lower town." I was too sleepy to 
be able to quite seize the situation, and this start- 
ling piece of news only elicited a growl from me 
to the effect that I thought they might have 
waited till the morning, and I fell back, and was 
just dozing off again, when a volley of musketry 
discharged at that moment close to our door, fol- 
lowed by a loud shriek, thoroughly awoke me, 
and I jumped out of bed and hurriedly put on my 
clothes. 

As soon as all was quiet outside the house I 
went to the door and cautiously opened it. It 
was still dark, but day-break to all appearance 
was not far off. The streets near Pedro's house 
were quite deserted, but in the direction of the 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



239 



plaza there was a great commotion, and the shout- 
ing of many voices, the rattling of horses' hoofs 
over the paved streets, the deep growl of cannon, 
or the sharp report of a Remington, broke omi- 
nously on the silence of the night. Curious to 
know what was going on, Guillaume and I 
slipped into the street and stole towards the plaza, 
in order to question any person we might happen 
to meet as to the exact nature of the disturbance. 
Presently, in running along, I stumbled over 
something, and on turning back to look I found 
with a shudder that it was the dead body of a 
man, probably the one whose shriek we heard a 
short time ago. We had not gone far when we 
saw somebody hastening our way as fast as his 
legs could carry him. We detained him for a 
moment, though he was as impatient to be gone 
as the wedding-guest in the ballad, and he told us 
that the convicts and soldiers had mutinied and 
had killed the governor of the colony, the cap- 
tain of the garrison, and all the officers, and were 
now engaged in fighting among themselves. 
With this information we went back to the house, 
wondering what the upshot of the whole affair 
would be — a matter which it was rather difficult 
to foretell, as the Chilian man-of-war generally 



240 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

stationed at Sandy Point was at that time survey- 
ing the straits some distance away, and till she 
arrived the convicts and soldiers would be mas- 
ters of the situation. 

Our evil star, as I remarked to Guillaume, was 
still in the ascendant ; indeed, it was a most pe- 
culiar instance of a continued run of bad luck, 
that on the very night of our safe arrival amongst 
civilized people, after having overcome not a few 
obstacles which had risen one after the other to 
frustrate our plans, an event should occur whose 
ultimate consequences might cause us to regret 
that we had ever crossed the Gallegos. Besides, 
it was not as if it were one of the ordinary acci- 
dents that may reasonably happen at any mo- 
ment ; far from it, the event in question was of so 
unusual a nature as to fairly make it improbable 
that it could happen even once in half a century. 
This being the case, it was rather provoking that, 
given all the antecedents of my journey, it should 
just happen at the very moment of my passing 
through Sandy Point. 

There were as yet, however, no grounds for 
apprehending anything serious. It was probable 
that the mutineers, having obtained their liberty, 
would make use of it to escape as quickly as pos- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



24I 



sible to the pampas, though what they were to do 
when they got there was best known to them- 
selves. With these and sundry other unpleasant 
reflections passing through my mind, I lay down 
on my couch and went to sleep again. When I 
awoke it was broad daylight. On opening my 
eyes I was startled by the sight of a drunken 
convict, who was leaning against the door of my 
room, holding a box of sardines in one hand and 
a piece of bread in the other. His Remington 
rifle, which, judging by the smell of powder it 
emitted, had been discharged several times, lay 
on the table beside my bed. He glared stupidly 
at me as I got up and went past him into the 
shop, which I found full of convicts and soldiers, 
who were eating and drinking and squabbling, 
and brandishing their Remingtons about in such 
a clumsy way that I expected at any moment to 
see some accident happen. They told me that 
they had killed the governor and all his family, 
and that they were now going off to the pampa 
to escape to the Argentine Republic. They pro- 
fessed to have no intention of harming any of the 
colonists, all they required being that they should 
be allowed to take whatever they wanted, free of 
payment. They were continually quarreling 
16 



242 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

among themselves, the chief object of their dis- 
pute being the honor, to which every one seemed 
to lay claim, of having killed the governor — the 
truth being that he had not been killed by any 
one, having escaped on horseback shortly after 
the revolt broke out. When one crowd left, an- 
other would come in, and so on all the morning, 
till very soon all the drinkables and eatables in 
Pedro's shop had disappeared. 

Most of the mutineers, both soldiers and con- 
victs, were Chilotes, as the people of the island 
of Chiloe are called. To do them justice I must 
say that I have never seen a more repulsively 
ugly and wretched-looking race than these same 
Chilotes, at least if I am to judge of them by the 
numerous specimens I had the pleasure of seeing 
at Sandy Point. They are of low stature and 
light build, their complexion is swarthy, their 
foreheads low, and the general expression of their 
faces is one of brutish stupidity blended with sav- 
age ferocity. I think there is, on the whole, very 
little to choose between them and the Fuegians, 
who, I believe, are commonly admitted to repre- 
sent the lowest type of humanity extant. 

Meanwhile the day wore on, but the mutineers 
did not seem in any hurry to quit the colony. It 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 243 

was impossible to leave the house to obtain any 
news of the revolt, as they were amusing them- 
selves by firing random shots in all directions, 
during which pastime not a few of their own 
number were accidentally killed. About this time 
they commenced a wholesale pillage of the shops, 
at which task they were assisted by the women 
and the Chilian colonists generally. I do not 
think the latter actually took part in any of the 
acts of violence subsequently committed, but at 
the commencement of the revolt they certainly 
fraternized with the mutineers, and in company 
with the latter, plundered and drank freely. 
Some colonists who lived opposite Pedro's house 
were busy all day long in carrying loads of wear- 
ing apparel and goods of all description from the 
various shops into their dwellings. What they 
were ultimately to do with all their spoils I sup- 
pose they hardly knew themselves, though, if 
they had not been too drunk, they might have 
reflected that as soon as order had been restored 
to the colony, a general search would be made, 
and they would not only be compelled to dis- 
gorge their plunder, but the fact of stolen goods 
being found in their possession would necessarily 
implicate them as having taken part in the mutiny. 



244 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

But the whole uprising was marked by the same 
utter absence of forethought, and the same in- 
comprehensible indifference to inevitable conse- 
quences. If any preconcerted plan of action had 
originally existed it was certainly not acted upon, 
and to this fortunate circumstance it is owing that 
all their intended victims escaped, with the ex- 
ception of the captain of the garrison. 

Towards three o'clock I was agreeably sur- 
prised by the sudden appearance of the German 
steamer in the offing, and I immediately began 
to make preparations for leaving by her, as I 
supposed that the mutineers would offer no ob- 
jection to my taking my departure. My hopes 
were doomed to be disappointed, however. 
When the steamer arrived abreast of the English 
consul's house, which is situated about five miles 
further up the straits, a little cutter put off from 
the shore, evidently with the intention of ac- 
quainting the people on board the steamer of the 
mutiny. I watched with anxious eyes to see 
what the steamer would do. Having parleyed 
for a while with the people in the cutter, she 
moved slowly on again towards the colony. 
Presently the boat of the captain of the port put 
off from the shore and went out to meet her. She 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



245 



had hardly got alongside when a sudden report 
was heard, and a cannon-ball, fired from the fort, 
struck the water just under the steamer's bows. 
It was quickly followed by another, which fell 
rather wide of the mark. In the mean while the 
steamer got out of range as . quickly as she was 
able, and keeping well on the opposite side of the 
straits, she soon passed the colony, and gradually 
disappeared from sight, taking the boat of the 
captain of the port with her. 

It appeared that the latter had been manned 
by several mutineers, who, disregarding the max- 
im anent honor among thieves, had made off 
with their own and their companions' share of 
certain moneys which had been plundered from 
the military chest. They had hoped to palm 
themselves off on the authorities on board as 
peaceful citizens, who had made good their es- 
cape from the dangers of the revolt, but the cap- 
tain took the liberty of doubting their represent- 
ations, and put them all into irons. They were 
eventually brought back to Sandy Point by an 
American man-of-war which met the German 
steamer a few days afterwards. 

Partly from rage at having been duped by 
their comrades, and partly from pure love of mis- 



246 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

chief, the mutineers had endeavored to shell the 
steamer, and their first shot was very nearly at- 
tended with disastrous success. 

I consoled myself for the disappointment I had 
just experienced by the thought that the Pacific 
steamer from Monte Video, the Cotopaxi, was 
due on the following day, and I was determined 
that I would not miss her in the same way. There 
was no other steamer after her for another fort- 
night, and it would indeed be a fatality if, after 
all the efforts I had made in order to reach San- 
dy Point in time to take her, she should actually 
pass by before my very eyes, without my being 
able to go on board. 

As it was possible that she might arrive at any 
moment, I resolved to go immediately to the 
English consul's house, in order to go on board 
with him, for I did not doubt that he would put 
off to warn her not to approach that colony. 

Without losing any time, therefore, I started 
off with Guillaume. On the way we met several 
bands of mutineers, who were in a very advanced 
state of intoxication. They told us that they 
were going to set fire to the town and leave that 
night for the pampas, but though they were al- 
ways threatening to shoot one another, they did 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



247 



not molest us in any way. I noticed that they 
were all dressed in new clothes, and some even 
had as many as three waistcoats on. 

When I arrived at the English consul's house I 
found there was no one in except the foreman of 
the saw-mill, a Scotchman, who had but recently 
arrived at the colony, and who was by no means 
tranquil in his mind as to the turn events had 
taken. He told me that Mr. Dunsmuir, the con- 
sul, had gone off in his cutter to meet the Ger- 
man steamer, but that he had not yet returned, 
probably owing to a strong head wind which .was 
then blowing. I remained, therefore, to await his 
coming, and Guillaume went back to the colony 
to see how matters were going. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

I FOUND McGregor, my new companion, in 
a state of despondent dread lest a party of 
mutineers should arrive from Sandy Point " and 
murder us a'." I endeavored to convince him 
that there was no danger, as indeed I believed 
there was not, but he refused to be comforted and 
grew so gloomy at the thought of the terrible 
fate in store for him, that at last I gravely said: 
" Well, I see there is no use in hiding the truth 
from you. We are in a most dangerous plight, 
and if bad fortune does lead the soldiers here, we 
are as likely as not to get our throats cut." This 
lugubrious intimation had the effect I anticipated. 
Feeling that nature unaided was not strong 
enough to sustain him under the present critical 
circumstances, McGregor applied himself so as- 
siduously to a jar of whisky that was fortunately 
248 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



249 



at hand that in a very short time he became 
quite cheerful, and even warlike, and sang "Scots 
wha hae wi' Wallace bled " with astonishing vigor 
and persistency, till, yielding to the soft influ- 
ences of his native stimulant, he at last sank into 
that sweet, calm slumber, from which the awak- 
ening is " hot coppers." 

Meanwhile evening came on apace, but no 
signs of the consul, and I began to fear that he 
had been blown too far out to sea to get back 
again that night. To pass away the time I in- 
spected the house, which was one-storied and 
consisted of two large front rooms, a sitting-room 
and a bed-room, behind which were two smaller 
compartments, one used as a larder and the other 
as a kitchen. From the back door one had only 
to step out and find one's self in a dense beech 
forest. 

Just as it was getting dark I heard the sound 
of horse's hoofs, and Guillaume galloped up to 
the house, breathless and excited. He told me 
that matters had taken a very serious turn in the 
colony ; the mutineers had committed several 
acts of violence and a general massacre being ap- 
prehended, great numbers of the colonists were 
flying to the woods. He himself had had a very 



250 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



narrow escape. He had been seized by a party 
of mutineers, who were making preparations for 
leaving for the pampas and who wished to requi- 
sition his services as guide to Santa Cruz. All 
his remonstrances were in vain, and they plainly 
intimated to him that he had to choose between 
accompanying them and having a bullet put 
through him ; he was compelled, therefore, to ap- 
pear to assent. In order to gain time he asked 
that he might be allowed to go to Pedro's house 
to fetch some clothes, and his request being 
granted, two soldiers were sent with him to pre- 
vent any attempt he should make to escape. 
They were fortunately so drunk, however, that 
they had hardly been a few minutes in the house 
when they lay down and soon fell fast asleep. 
Profiting by this lucky circumstance, Guillaume 
lost no time in jumping on a horse which hap- 
pened to stand in Pedro's yard, and in a few sec- 
onds he placed himself out of danger of pursuit. 

All this news was the reverse of re-assuring, 
and I began to think that McGregor's fears were, 
after all, not wholly unfounded. The consul's 
house was only a few yards off the road which 
led from Sandy Point to the Swiss colony at 
Agna Fresca, and at any time we might expect 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



251 



an unpleasant visit from some of the soldiers, 
who were continually going that way in search 
of horses or plunder. To make matters worse, 
neither Guillaume nor I had a revolver, and al- 
though we searched all over the house, we could 
not find an arm of any description. If attacked, 
therefore, we had no means of defending our- 
selves, a consideration which did not tend to allay 
our apprehensions. 

After supper we made preparations for passing 
the night. McGregor, who in the mean time 
had awakened, made up a bed for himself on the 
floor ; and although I advised him not to, he 
would insist on taking off his clothes. I lay 
down on a sofa to take a short nap, pending the 
consul's arrival, which I hoped would not now be 
long delayed. I soon fell asleep, but at about 
midnight I awoke, roused by the pattering of 
rain on the roof. I got up and looked out at the 
weather. The night was pitch dark and the rain 
was falling in torrents ; there was a stormy wind 
blowing, and I could plainly hear the hoarse roar 
of the waves on the beach. I went back to the 
sofa, but lay tossing about for a long time, un- 
able, tired as I was, to go to sleep again. 

An hour went by, and I was just dozing off 



252 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

when I thought I heard a slight tap at the door. 
Hurriedly lighting the lamp, I got up and looked 
out. Something touched my hand, and looking 
down I saw a little boy standing close to me. 
His first word was, 

" My mamma is waiting at the bottom of the 
garden, and wants to know whether she may 
come in ? " 

" Certainly, my boy," I said ; " but who is 
your mother? " 

" My father is the governor, and we have had 
to run away from the town, for the soldiers are 
burning the houses and killing everybody." 

With that he ran away into the rain and the 
darkness, and came back after a second or two, 
followed by a lady, with several children and two 
maid-servants. 

I immediately took them into the bed-room, 
and handed an arm-chair to Mrs. Dublet, who 
was pale with exhaustion and suffering, and al- 
most in a fainting condition. As soon as she 
was sufficiently rested to be able to speak she 
told me that on the previous night, shortly after 
twelve o'clock, she had been startled from her 
sleep by the discharge of cannon, with which the 
mutineers had signalized the commencement of 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



253 



the revolt. Her husband immediately rushed 
into the street. He had hardly been gone two 
minutes when suddenly a hail of mitrailleuse 
bullets began to crash through the house, rid- 
dling the very walls of her bed-room. By a mir- 
acle, in the midst of this deadly fire, she had 
time to collect all her children, and escape with 
them unhurt into the street by a back door. In 
a few seconds more the house was in flames, and 
as she hurried away she could hear the jubilant 
shouts with which the mutineers greeted the sup- 
posed successful slaughter of her husband and his 
family. She managed to escape to a little 
house on the beach, where she had remained 
hidden during the day, without having been de- 
tected. But towards night the uproar and fight- 
ing amongst the mutineers increased ; several 
houses were set fire to, and fearing that any mo- 
ment a passing soldier might burst into the house 
and discover her, as soon as it got dark she had 
decided on attempting to reach the English con- 
sul's house. By chance she had learned during 
the day-time that her husband had escaped, and 
that in all probability he had gone to fetch the 
Chilian man-of-war, MagelZanes, now at Stey- 
ring Water, to put down the revolt. 



254 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

I told her that Mr. Dunsmuir would in all 
probability not be back that night, but that in 
the meantime I should be glad to render her any 
assistance that she might require. 

The children, the eldest of whom was the little 
boy who had come to the door first, and he was 
only seven, were dressed in whatever clothes the 
servants had hurriedly been able to snatch up on 
the night of the first alarm. 

The poor things were in a terrible plight. 
They had been more than two hours on the road 
from Sandy Point, and were drenched to the skin 
with the rain and mire. They had eaten nothing 
for twenty-four hours. I took them in some 
tea; but rest being what they chiefly required, 
with the help of mattresses and rugs, etc., we 
managed to make some tolerably comfortable 
beds for them. Having done this, we withdrew 
to the sitting-room, there to consult as to our 
plan of action should the mutineers come to the 
house. 

In the midst of our discussion there was an- 
other knock, and on the door being opened, two 
more fugitives from the colony, an Irishman and 
his wife, made their appearance. Both seemed 
to have had recourse to strong stimulants to sup- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 255 

port their courage, and under the circumstances 
they were certainly not a desirable addition to 
our party. 

During all this time McGregor had preserved a 
cheerful, unconcerned demeanor. He had been 
particularly active in his attentions to the Dublet 
family, to the extent of insisting, with well-meant 
but misplaced zeal, that all should swallow a drop 
of whisky before going to bed. He found the 
new-comers did not require so much pressing. 

Guillaume and I were sitting by the fire in the 
kitchen, trying to get a little sleep, of which we 
were sorely in need, when suddenly there was a 
loud banging at the front door, followed by a 
loud chorus of oaths and vociferations. We im- 
mediately ran into the sitting-room, and Guil- 
laume went to open the door whilst I took the 
lamp into the kitchen. I had hardly put it down 
when I heard a crash in the front room, the 
house was filled with shrieks, and the Irish 
couple, McGregor, and, as I thought, Guillaume, 
rushed madly past me into the forest. Seized 
with the panic, I followed them for a moment; 
but reflection returning, I went back to the house, 
ashamed of my want of courage. I found half a 
dozen drunken soldiers in the sitting-room par- 



256 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 



leying with Guillaume. Owing to the darkness, 
they had fortunately not discovered the other 
room where Mrs. Dublet was concealed ; and in 
order to divert their attention from it we induced 
them to go into the kitchen. There we plied 
them with more whisky, in the hopes of quickly 
reducing them to a state of complete inebriety. 
The transition phase was not a very pleasant one, 
inasmuch as they never let go their carbines, and 
frequently, half in joke, half in earnest, they 
pointed them threateningly at us. At times, 
too, they would wander into the sitting-room, 
and then moments of terrible suspense ensued 
for us lest they should open the door of the 
bed-room. We were careful always to follow 
them, and had made up our minds in the event 
of their attempting anything of the kind to sud- 
denly throw ourselves upon the two men nearest 
us, seize their carbines, which were sixteen-re- 
peating Winchesters, and open fire on the lot. 
There was every chance in favor of the success 
of such a measure, as the mutineers were already 
so drunk that they could hardly stand, and if 
taken by surprise would have been too bewildered 
to offer any resistance. 

The tension of these moments was heightened 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



257 



by the probability that at any moment Mrs. 
Dublet's babies might begin to cry, and thus re- 
veal the secret of the room. Miraculously 
enough, however, they kept quiet, and we always 
managed to get the men back to the kitchen 
without the dreaded crisis occurring. It seemed 
as if they never would leave. Twenty times 
they got to the front door, and we began to 
breathe afresh, thinking they were at last off, but 
twenty times, for some reason or other, they 
would come back again. From their conversa- 
tion it was very hard to find out what they ex- 
actly wanted. Those who were still sufficiently 
sober to speak articulately at times told us that 
they were going to start off to the pampa imme- 
diately, and at others that they intended holding 
the colony against all comers. At one moment 
they would be maudlingly affectionate ; at another 
they would lengthily discuss which mode of killing 
us was preferable — shooting us or cutting our 
throats. Of course, we were always on the alert, 
and ready to make good our objections to either 
of these methods. 

At last we had the indescribable satisfaction of 
seeing them depart for good. Guillaume follow- 
ed them at some distance, to give the alarm in 
17 



258 



WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 



case they should come back, whilst I ran to the 
bed-room to tell Mrs. Dublet that for the moment 
the danger was over. What she must have suf- 
fered all this time may be imagined. For two 
hours, every second of which must have seemed 
an eternity to her, she had been expecting to see 
the door burst open at any moment, and herself 
and her children at the mercy of the muti- 
neers, of whose murderous intentions towards 
her she had had terrible proof in the bombarding 
of her house on the night of the commencement 
of the revolt. But her courage had not given 
way, as it might well have done under even less 
trying circumstances, and I found her, though pale 
and prostrate, thoroughly calm and collected. I 
hurriedly told her that any moment the muti- 
neers might come back, and that we had better 
leave the house and fly to the woods. 

We accordingly set out immediately. I took 
two of the smaller children in my arms, the 
maids each carried one, and the others walked by 
the side of their mother ; and Guillaume, who had 
returned after having seen the soldiers safely off 
to the bottom of the garden, brought up the rear, 
carrying a mattress and some rugs and blankets. 
We then dived into the forest. It was still rain- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



259 



ing and the night was as dark as could be. At 
every step we would meet with some mishap, 
now stumbling over the fallen trunk of a tree, 
and now slipping into some boggy hole. The 
children, who had hitherto behaved admirably, 
having borne hunger and cold and fatigue with- 
out a murmur, could now hardly be kept from 
crying. I carried a little girl of about four years 
old ; her shoes and stockings had been lost in the 
hurry of collecting the rugs and bed-clothes, and 
her uncovered feet were icily cold. But though 
I could hear her sob now and then on my should- 
er, she was too brave to cry aloud. How the two 
babes lived through all this exposure was a mir- 
acle. 

After having walked for about half an hour, 
for we could make but slow progress, we came to 
a spot which seemed far enough from the house 
to be safe, and there we spread out the two mat- 
tresses on the wet ground, under the lea of the 
trunk of a fallen beech tree. The whole party 
managed to lay down on this rough bed, and, 
having covered them over with the rugs and 
blankets Guillaume had brought, we left them to 
go back to the house to fetch some provisions 
and some more coverings, for there was no know- 



2 6o WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

ing how many days we might be compelled to 
pass in the woods. 

We went very cautiously towards the house, as 
we could hear voices in the kitchen, and feared 
lest the soldiers might have returned already. 
The strains of " Scots wha hae," which pleasantly 
smote on our ears, re-assured us, however, and we 
went boldly forward. We found that the Irish 
couple and McGregor had returned ; they were 
toasting their happy escape with more whisky. 
McGregor was delighted to see that we were still 
alive, and said he had ran away at the approach 
of the soldiers because, " I dinna speak Spanish, 
ye ken." 

We were cold and exhausted with the night's 
exertions, so whilst Guillaume went to see wheth- 
er the coast was clear, McGregor set about mak- 
ing coffee, and I busied myself collecting provis- 
ions and other necessaries for taking with us to 
the woods. 

Guillaume soon came back bringing three car- 
bines which he had found at the bottom of the 
garden. From the marks in the ground he sur- 
. mised that, under the influence of their deep po- 
tations, the soldiers had probably lain down to 
sleep there, and on awakening had forgotten 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 6l 

their arms. This was indeed a prize. Each car- 
bine still contained some six or seven charges. As 
McGregor would have nothing to do with a 
weapon, Guillaume and I kept one each and hid 
the other away in a bush near the house. As 
good luck, like bad, seldom comes singly, whilst 
rummaging about the bed-room in search of the 
little girl's stockings, I found a revolver. This 
might prove a more valuable weapon under cer- 
tain circumstances than the carbine even, and 
with it safe in my coat pocket, I felt quite a dif- 
ferent man. 

We were just pouring out the coffee, having 
made all preparations for finally leaving the 
house, when Guillaume, who was always on the 
look-out, rushed suddenly in, and shouting " Run 
for your lives !" seized me by the arm and 
dragged me out of the house. We had just time 
to snatch up the carbines and dash into the woods 
when we heard the soldiers banging at the front 
door. We did not stop till we had got some dis- 
tance into the forest. Guillaume told me that 
there were about a dozen soldiers, amongst whom 
doubtless the three whose carbines he had taken. 
What they would do on not finding them any- 
where in the house we did not know, but it was 



2 62 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

not impossible that in their rage they might set 
fire to the house, and perhaps follow us into the 
woods. We now deeply regretted having tarried 
so long in the house, as we had now no provis- 
ions to take back to our charges. Whilst debat- 
ing what to do we were startled by the sharp 
crack of a rifle discharged close to us, followed 
by the sound of approaching voices ; and fear- 
ing the soldiers were in pursuit of us, we hur- 
ried as fast as possible to where we had left Mrs. 
Dublet. 

On reaching the spot we found she had risen, 
anxious on account of our long absence, and 
startled by the shot she had just heard. With- 
out saying that I thought we were being followed, 
I told her that it was perhaps better that we 
should go still further into the forest, and without 
losing a second we gathered up the children and 
again commenced our pilgrimage, plunging deep- 
er and deeper into the dense mass of underwood, 
till we had got so far that pursuit seemed impos- 
sible. 

By this time all the younger children were cry- 
ing bitterly for want of food. A tin of preserved 
milk, which I had put in my pocket, had dropped 
out somehow, and it now became almost a mat- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 6$ 

ter of life and death that the babes should have 
some nourishment. Feeling the urgency of the 
case, Guillaume and I again started towards the 
house, hoping that the soldiers had given up their 
search for us, and had perhaps gone back to San- 
dy Point. We crept along with beating hearts, 
starting at the crackling of the branches under 
our feet, and fearing to find a foe concealed be- 
hind every tree, till we at last got to the open 
near the house. Under cover of some bushes 
we crept close up to it. By the hum of voices 
we could tell that the soldiers were still inside, 
and presently one came out of the house and 
stood peering into the wood for a short time, 
standing so close to us that we could hear his 
breathing. After he had gone inside we profited 
by the opportunity to slip back into the wood, 
and having made a circuit, we ensconced our- 
selves on an eminence on the other side of the 
house, where we were more secure, and where we 
could better watch the coming and going of our 
enemies. 

There we lay, hour after hour, and still they 
did not leave — they were in warm quarters, and 
the whisky was doubtless too strong an attraction 
for them. What, I began to think, if they should 



264 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



not leave all day ? Our only chance would be to 
steal into the house after dark, and risk the rest. 
But it was doubtful whether the younger children 
could live till then without some nourishment. 
The tin of milk I had lost would have saved all 
anxiety, and I half made up my mind to start off 
and follow the path I had taken from the house 
to the woods, on the desperate chance of perhaps 
finding it again. Fortunately matters did not 
reach that pitch, for at last, after having impa- 
tiently waited for about three hours, we saw ten 
or twelve soLdiers leave the house, mount their 
horses and ride off in the direction of Sandy 
Point. We immediately quitted our watch-tower 
and ran as fast as we could towards the house ; 
but, to our horror, just as we got to the door we 
heard voices within again. We were desperate 
by this time, besides, it was too late to turn back, 
so holding our guns in readiness we cautiously 
approached the doorway. Then an anticlimax; 
for suddenly the Irishwoman, followed by her 
spouse, rushed out and almost received our fire. 

On hearing Guillaume's shout of warning, they 
had waited a moment too long, and before they 
could get out of the place the soldiers were upon 
them. They had furiously demanded the miss- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



265 



ing carbines, but of course they were not to be 
found anywhere, whereupon they threatened to 
burn the house down. Here again the whisky 
saved the situation. They lingered so long over 
the cask that they quite forgot to look for the 
carbines, much less to go off in pursuit of us. 
Two or three of them went a few yards into the 
wood and fired off a single shot at random, but 
they probably thought it would be dangerous to 
risk themselves too far, and they accordingly 
went back to their comrades. They stayed as 
long as the whisky lasted, and then went off 
again. 

We lost no time in collecting a quantity of 
provisions, tins of preserved meats and soups, 
milk, ham, eggs, etc., etc., to which I added some 
plates, saucepans, knives, spoons, in fact, every- 
thing necessary for a prolonged sojourn in the 
woods. I told McGregor to come with us if he 
liked, as to all appearance the mutineers seemed 
in no hurry to leave for the pampas, and sooner 
or later he might get into trouble. The Irish 
couple, having found a case of sherry, seemed to 
think their lines cast in a very pleasant place, and 
as the soldiers had as yet not done them any 
grievous harm, they made up their minds to stay. 



2 66 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

Loaded with the remaining blankets and with 
the provisions, we made our way back as quickly 
as possible to Mrs. Dublet, who, as we had been 
away for more than four hours, had become quite 
alarmed lest some mishap had befallen us. We 
turned out the provisions, soon made a fire, and 
having dissolved some milk for the younger 
children, we commenced to prepare a substantial 
meal, of which every one stood in great need. 
We were just beginning to feel a little more at 
our ease, the children had been able to dry their 
clothes and warm themselves by the fire, some 
meat we had set to roast was nearly done to a 
turn, and, feeling secure now from all danger, we 
were able for the first time to quietly talk of the 
late events and discuss the probability of the 
speedy arrival of the Chilian man-of-war — when 
two women came running through the woods 
towards us, pale and frightened, calling out as 
they got near, "The soldiers, the soldiers! Run 
for your lives ! " 

We all started to our feet in dismay. It was 
perhaps already too late to fly. We were at all 
events armed, and could at least make a good 
stand if necessary. Meanwhile we hurriedly 
lifted the children in our arms, and leaving 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS, 



267 



everything else behind us, we again " moved on," 
turning our heads at every second, to be prepared 
should the soldiers arrive. No one appeared, 
however, and it seemed merely a false scare of 
the women. The forest had become so dense 
that occasionally we had to pick our way through 
thick underwood. The ground was a mere 
swamp, full of treacherous holes, and the rain and 
moisture clinging to the leaves of the bushes 
drenched us all to the skin as we brushed 
through them. But still we kept on, determined 
to place such a distance between the road and our 
camp as to leave us perfectly at ease as regards 
the mutineers, who would certainly never take 
the trouble' of looking so far into the wood for 
anybody, even if they were to stop another month 
round the colony. 

When we reached a small open in the thicket 
where the ground was tolerably dry, we set down 
the children, and returned on our tracks to fetch 
the mattresses, coverings, and food we had left 
behind. We found everything just as we had 
left it, and not a sign of any one having been near 
the place. The women who had run past us had, 
perhaps, heard some branches crackle, and had 
immediately concluded that the mutineers were 



268 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

coming. However, there was nothing to be done 
but to carry everything to our new camping- 
place — no easy task, as both Guillaume and my- 
self were completely done up with our continued 
exertions, and the mattresses and various other 
articles were in themselves heavy enough. 

We had hidden our charges so well that we 
could not find them ourselves, and only after a 
great deal of searching, quite by accident, we 
happened to stumble on the place again. To 
keep off the wet, which was dropping from the 
trees, we rigged up a kind of tent over the mat- 
tresses with some blankets, and under its shelter 
the whole party lay huddled together. We then 
tried to make a fire, but as the wood was wet it 
could not be got to burn, and only blinded us 
with smoke. After a great deal of blowing we 
at last succeeded in raising a fair glow, by the aid 
of which we managed to cook a meal, which was 
actually eaten. And quite time it was, too, as 
the children had had nothing but the milk for 
nearly twenty-eight hours. 

It was now about four o'clock. I became 
anxious to know what was going on in the col- 
ony, and whether there was any possibility of the 
mutineers leaving soon. Leaving McGregor in 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



269 



charge of the camp, Guillaume and I made our 
way down to the road, and keeping under cover 
of the wood, slowly proceeded in the direction of 
the colony, in the hopes of meeting some one 
who could give us some news. We had not gone 
very far when we saw a stout little man coming 
running along the road at full speed. Guillaume 
recognized him as one of the bakers of Sandy 
Point, and called to him to stop as he ran past 
us. As soon as he could find breath to speak he 
said that a short time before the house where he 
lived had been attacked by the soldiers, two of 
his companions had been killed, and he had only 
saved himself by jumping out of a window, just 
as the mutineers were standing in the doorway 
of his room with fixed bayonets inviting him to 
pass through their midst. There was hardly any 
one left in the colony, most of the inhabitants 
having taken refuge in the woods. He had seen 
several dead bodies lying about as he had hur- 
ried away, but having never been out of his 
house since the commencement of the revolt, he 
could give us little information as to the doings 
of the mutineers. 

We went back to the consul's house with him. 
The Irishwoman was still there, and was sleeping 



270 



WANDERINGS IN PA TAGONIA; OR, 



peacefully in an arm-chair; her husband we found 
lying in the kitchen, with several severe head- 
wounds. A pillaging party had evidently gone 
through the place, for drawers were upset, crock- 
ery smashed, curtains torn down, and general 
disorder prevalent everywhere. The baker was 
in a hurry to be off to the woods, for after his re- 
cent narrow escape he had a wholesome, but per- 
haps excessive, dread of suddenly being seized 
by the mutineers again. 

But though we had plenty of provisions of all 
kinds, there was neither bread nor biscuit in the 
house, so I asked him — flour, eggs, and butter 
being at hand — to make the dough for some 
cakes, which could be baked up in the woods at 
our leisure. Very reluctantly he agreed to do 
so, on condition that Guillaume should watch the 
road to give timely warning of the approach of 
danger. Presently Guillaume called me, and on 
going out I saw a dense cloud of smoke rising in 
the direction of the colony. The convicts had 
evidently set fire to the town, a prelude, perhaps, 
to their departure. There was no wind, and soon 
a heavy down-pour of rain commenced ; but we 
had little hope that a stick would be left standing 
in the whole settlement, which was built exclu- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



271 



sively of timber. The dough being ready, though 
I think it had not been kneaded very carefully, 
we went back into the wood, losing our way as 
on the former occasion, and had it not been for 
the familiar strains of " Scots wha hae ! " with 
which McGregor was cheering the children, and 
which at last guided us to the camp, we might 
have wandered about for hours. 

We were now quite a large party, the possibil- 
ity of being again disturbed by the mutineers was 
out of the question, and if only we had been able 
to make a good blazing fire, than which there is 
nothing so cheering to the spirits, we might, com- 
paratively speaking, have felt fairly comfortable. 
But whatever wood we could collect was quite 
wet, and it was difficult to get it to burn suffi- 
ciently to cook the dinner by. 

Under shelter of the improvised tent we had 
managed to rig up, and with the aid of the few 
coverings procured from the consul's house, Mrs. 
Dublet and the children were fortunately kept 
tolerably dry and warm, and, overcome with the 
anxieties and exertions of the day, they were able 
to forget their troubles in sleep. As for myself 
and the other men, we tried for some time to do 
likewise, but having no coverings, the cold and 



272 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 



wet effectually kept us awake, and we passed the 
night huddled round the smoldering logs, listen- 
ing to the monotonous pattering of the rain on 
the canopy of leaves above us, and longing wear- 
ily for the morning. 

It broke at last, and with it came better weath- 
er. As soon as the sun was well up, I went down 
to the house to see if there was anything new. 

On reaching a point from which the settlement 
was visible, from the changed aspect of the town 
it was evident that the fire had done great rav- 
ages. It was, however, too far off for me to rec- 
ognize whether many of the houses were left 
standing, which, considering the nature of their 
construction, was not probable. A thin column 
of smoke was still rising from one part, but the 
fire itself seemed spent. I then looked down the 
straits towards Dawson's Island, but as yet there 
was no sign of any coming steamer. The Pacific 
steamer Cotopaxi was due on the day before, and 
as it is very unusual for the vessels of that line to 
be behind time, I concluded that she had been 
met by the English consul, and was possibly 
awaiting the arrival of the Chilian man-of-war, 
whose coming could not now be long delayed, 
before approaching the colony. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



273 



On my way back to our forest sanctuary I 
stumbled on a knot of Chilian women, who told 
me they had escaped from the colony the pre- 
vious night, for fear of being taken to the pampas 
by the mutineers, who were making preparations 
for leaving immediately. They all had big bun- 
dles of clothes with them, and, strange to say, 
all wore brand-new shawls and gowns. I had 
not the slightest doubt but that they had done 
their share in the general plundering. It was 
good news, at all events, to hear that the muti- 
neers were at last really off, of which the burning 
of the colony was the best proof. 

After breakfast I started off with Guillaume, 
with the intention of going to Sandy Point, if 
possible, and discovering the real state of affairs 
there. But on reaching the road just below the 
consul's house, to .our surprise we found it 
thronged with fugitives from the settlement, who 
were issuing from all parts of the woods, where 
they had been hiding. On looking seawards the 
reason became apparent. Steaming along at full 
speed, and already nearly opposite the house, we 
saw the long-expected Magellanes, the Chilian 
man-of-war. I immediately ran back to take the 
welcome news to Mrs. Dublet that her troubles 
18 



274 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

were now at last over. For the last time we car- 
ried the children through the wood down to Mr. 
Dunsmuir's house, which, by the time we got 
there, was crowded with women and children, 
carrying such of their household goods as they 
had been able to take with them in their flight. 

As soon as the Magellanes arrived in front of 
the house a boat was sent off to the shore, in 
which Mrs. Dublet and her children embarked to 
meet her husband, who was safe on board. 
Shortly after, another larger boat came to fetch 
off the other women and children. 

Here a rather ludicrous scene ensued. Just 
before the boat touched land the people on shore 
were suddenly seized with panic, at the sight 
of some dark bodies advancing on the road from 
Sandy Point, and which they thought were the 
soldiers coming towards them. Immediately the 
air was filled with shrieks, and, throwing down 
their bundles, every one rushed into the water 
to meet the advancing boat. The sailors had to 
keep them off with their oars, or they would 
have swamped the boat. Meanwhile the foe 
came nearer, the shrieks grew louder, some of 
the men even sharing in the general weakness, 
till at last the coming squadron of horsemen re- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



275 



solved itself into a herd of cows, who came trot- 
ting leisurely down the road, ignorant of the 
panic their presence created. 

The women and those of the men who chose 
to go were at last brought safely on board, and 
the Magellanes steamed slowly up the straits to- 
wards the colony. Guillaume and I had already 
started off some time before, and we arrived at 
the first house in the settlement almost as soon 
as she arrived abreast of the pier. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

AS we got nearer to the town it became evi- 
dent that the better portion had been burn- 
ed down ; of the fort, the hospital, the govern- 
ment buildings, and a great many private houses, 
nothing remained but a smoking heap of charred 
timbers. The first house I entered was Pedro's, 
the one in which I had slept on the night of my 
arrival. The state of things inside was deplora- 
ble ; the shop had been completely ransacked of 
its contents, the taps of the casks had been 
turned on and the wine and aguadiente had run 
out on the floor, which was strewn with the de- 
bris of crockery and glassware, broken bottles, 
half-emptied tins of preserved meats, odd boots, 
wearing apparel, rice and flour — the remains, in 
fact, of what had once constituted Pedro's stock 
in trade. The other rooms bore marks of the 
276 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



277 



same spirit of wanton destruction. Everything 
smashable had been smashed, and everything con- 
veniently portable had been carried off. The 
pillaging had been done with remarkable thor- 
oughness — no article seemed to have been too 
insignificant to escape the rapacity of the ma- 
rauders, who had thought it worth while to take 
the cruet-stand,' the clock, and the knives and 
forks of ordinary household use even. 

Opposite Pedro's was the baker's house, which 
had been stormed by the mutineers, the owner 
having unwisely closed his doors and refused 
them admission. They killed two of its inmates, 
and the others had a narrow escape from sharing 
the same fate, just managing to take flight un- 
hurt under a shower of bullets. Walking down 
to the plaza, I passed several dead bodies, chiefly 
of convicts or soldiers. The streets were as yet 
almost completely deserted, but on turning a 
corner I found myself face to face with a villain- 
ous-looking man, who, on seeing me, suddenly 
pointed his gun at me, and for a second I 
thought he was going to fire. He lowered his 
weapon immediately, however, saying that he 
had taken me for a mutineer. 

I had not the slightest doubt that he was one. 



278 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA: OR, 



In fact, not a few of those who took a very act- 
ive part in the mutiny remained behind in San- 
dy Point when their companions left for the 
pampas, either because they were too drunk to 
be able to follow them, or because they calculat- 
ed on being able to pass themselves off on the 
authorities as peaceful and inoffensive citizens, 
and thus escape the punishment they had so well 
deserved. Hence the officious zeal with which 
this man had felt himself called upon to offer to 
shoot me, in the hopes of impressing me with his 
profound sympathies for the cause of order. 

In the mean time some forces were landed 
from the Magellanes, and gradually the colonists 
began to flock down to the town from all parts of 
the woods, or from wherever they had been hid- 
ing during the revolt. Many came back to find 
their houses burned to the ground ; and there 
were few who were not completely ruined by the 
wholesale and wanton destruction of their prop- 
erty. 

It was estimated that damage to the amount of 
about $500,000 had been done — a very large 
sum indeed, considering the size of the town and 
the calling of its inhabitants. About sixty per- 
sons perished during the revolt, and several died 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 279 

subsequently from the effects of their wounds. 
Strange to say, the day after the mutineers left 
Sandy Point no less than three men-of-war lay 
anchored in the straits in front of the town. 
Amongst them was a United States steamer, 
which had been warned by the German packet 
of the mutiny, and which, but for the heavy 
weather encountered off Cape Virgines, might 
have arrived at the colony on Tuesday morning, 
and have quelled the revolt before it had devel- 
oped its worst features. 

The mutineers had chosen a favorable moment 
for their rising. Most of the colonists were away 
seal-fishing, and the man-of-war generally sta- 
tioned in the straits was temporarily absent from 
Sandy Point, being engaged on a survey of 
Skyring Water. The nominal head of the mu- 
tineers was a sergeant of the name of Riquelmes. 
Their plan had originally been to kill the govern- 
or and any of the Government officials obnox- 
ious to them, and then immediately set out for 
the pampa, and cross the Santa Cruz River into 
Argentine territory, where these naive scoundrels 
imagined they would be hailed as an acquisition, 
and be received with open arms by the authori- 
ties. On a par with such absurd reasoning was 



2 go WANDERINGS IN PA TAG ONI A; 0R t 

their conduct throughout the revolt, and when 
they left Sandy Point they loaded their pack- 
horses with bales of shawls, dresses, ponchos, and 
similar useless articles, but with not an ounce of 
provisions of any kind. 

Riquelmes, as I have said, was their nominal 
chief, but he dared not, had he wished to, enforce 
his authority, and each mutineer plundered or 
murdered at his own sweet will, without reference 
to the doings of. his comrades. Owing to this 
absence of organization, their intended victims, 
with the exception of the captain of the garrison, 
were fortunately able to escape. The governor, 
Major Dublet, on hearing the first alarm, had run 
into the streets. A passing ' soldier, without rec- 
ognizing him, struck him over the head with a 
gun, and he fell senseless. When he recovered, 
aided by the darkness, he managed to reach a 
house on the outskirts of the town, where he was 
well received and enabled to dress his wound. 
He then procured a horse, and after an unbroken 
ride of twenty- three hours, arrived at Skyring 
Water, just in time to catch the Magellanes y which 
was getting up steam preparatory to leaving, and 
apprise the captain of the mutiny. The captain 
of the garrison, less fortunate, was murdered as 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 2 8l 

he was leaving his bed-room, and his dead body 
was barbarously mutilated before the eyes of his 
wife and children. The other officials escaped. 

During the two ensuing days the mutineers 
were chiefly occupied in drinking and plundering 
— pastimes which they varied with occasional 
fights among themselves. On the first day they 
had respected the lives and persons of the colo- 
nists, and many of the latter, foreseeing that this 
moderation might not be of long duration, wisely 
withdrew from the town and hid themselves in 
the woods with their wives and children. Those 
who remained behind, in the hopes of being able 
to save their homes and property from destruction, 
soon had cause to regret their imprudence. The 
conduct of the mutineers, in measure as the effects 
of the continued drinking in which they indulged 
began to tell upon them, grew more and more 
violent, and before long, breaking all bounds, they 
gave themselves up to the most ferocious license. 
It is not necessary to recount the details of the 
horrible scenes that took place ; as may be im- 
agined, given the antecedents of these men, hu- 
man life was of as little account with them as 
female honor. Though there was nothing to be 
gained by it, they seemed to find a peculiar satis- 



282 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; Off, 

faction in destroying everything that was de- 
structible, and it was not from any want of in- 
tention that the whole colony was not burned to 
the ground by them, but simply that they were 
too intoxicated to be able to carry out the neces- 
sary arrangements for so doing with sufficient 
thoroughness. 

In the midst of their orgy they were surprised 
by the appearance of the Magellanes early on 
Wednesday morning. Thereupon they hurriedly 
collected some forty horses, which they loaded 
with all kinds of plunder, and forgetting, as I 
have already said, incredible though it may seem, 
to take any provisions with them ; and the whole 
crowd, which numbered about 180 souls, includ- 
ing some women, then started off for Cabo Ne- 
gro on foot. At that place they expected to find 
sufficient horses to mount everybody, as most of 
the horses belonging to the colonists were kept 
there, on account of there being little or no past- 
urage in the vicinity of Sandy Point. In this 
expectation, however, they were disappointed — 
the farm-owner had taken the precaution of driv- 
ing the whole of his stock out of harm's way, and 
the mutineers, on arriving at Cabo Negro, found 
themselves obliged to abandon the useless plun- 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



283 



der they had brought from the colony, for most 
of them were already tired out, and required the 
few horses they possessed for more practical pur- 
poses than that of carrying bales of guanaco 
mantles and dry goods. As many as three men 
had to ride on each horse, and even then a great 
number had to drag themselves along on foot as 
best they might. The whole band, therefore, 
moved very slowly, and they were, moreover, 
under continual dread of the arrival of a pursu- 
ing party from the colony. 

For some reason known only to those having 
authority, no such party was dispatched, how- 
ever ; though there is little doubt that forty or 
fifty men, well armed and well mounted, might 
-easily have brought the mutineers to bay, and ef- 
fected their capture without much trouble. Many 
had already thrown their guns and ammunition 
away, and now that they were brought face to 
face with almost certain starvation, would have 
been too glad to surrender on any terms. 

In the evening, though they could ill spare 
them, they had to kill two or three horses for 
food. The next day they fell in with an ostrich- 
hunter, who, not knowing what had taken place 
during his absence, was quietly returning to 



2 84 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

Sandy Point. His troop of horses was, of course, 
an invaluable prize to the mutineers, and him 
they forced to go with them, in order that with 
his dogs he might help to supply them with food. 
He contrived to lag behind the main band, how- 
ever, and when once fairly amongst the foot 
stragglers, he suddenly turned round, and, gal- 
loping away, made good his escape, unpursued 
by the mutineers, who had no inclination to tire 
their horses unnecessarily. 

They now conceived the plan of surprising the 
Indians, with the object of massacring them and 
seizing their horses and dogs, but unforeseen cir- 
cumstances again conspired to frustrate their in- 
tentions. Five or six mutineers had left Sandy 
Point on the first day of the mutiny, and these 
men, on passing through the Indian encamp- 
ment, besides stealing several horses, had killed 
an Indian who had remonstrated with them. 
This incident put the Indians on the alert ; they 
dispatched scouts in all directions, and as soon 
as these latter announced the coming of the main 
band, the camp was hurriedly broken up, and 
long before the mutineers arrived at Campo de 
Batalla, the site of the encampment, the Indians 
were half way to the Cordilleras, and far out of 
reach of pursuit. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



285 



The day after their last disappointment poor 
Isidoro fell into their hands. He had crossed 
the Gallegos, which in the mean time had fallen 
considerably, two days before, and was traveling 
leisurely towards Sandy Point, little dreaming of 
what was in store for him, when one evening, on 
turning a bend in some canon, he suddenly stum- 
bled on the mutineers' camp. He was immedi- 
ately surrounded, dragged from his horse, and 
taken to Riquelmes, who, without saying why or 
wherefore, ordered him to prepare to be shot 
within five minutes. Any attempt at resistance 
was, of course, useless, and Isidoro quietly re- 
signed himself to his fate. Ten men were told 
off to do the fatal office, and Riquelmes was just 
going to give the command to fire, when it sud- 
denly occurred to him that Isidoro might be use- 
ful for tracking the Indians, to find whom the 
mutineers still thought it was possible, and ac- 
cordingly he agreed to spare Isidoro's life, warn- 
ing him that should he attempt to escape he 
would be punished with immediate death. 

The next day they continued their march. 
Isidoro, surrounded by a strong guard, was al- 
lowed to ride on horseback, his other horses, 
twenty-seven in number, being of course req- 



286 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

uisitioned by the mutineers. During the first 
day no opportunity to escape presented itself, but 
on the second day such an occasion occurred, 
and Isidoro adroitly profited by it. In the course 
of the march some specks were observed moving 
on the horizon, which Riquelmes and his follow- 
ers fancied must be the Indians ; and appeal be- 
ing made to Isidoro he confirmed their supposi- 
tion, although his own superior power of vision 
enabled him to detect that the specks in question 
were nothing but guanacos. Whereupon ensued 
great excitement. A halt was immediately made 
and a council of war held, with the object of de- 
termining some ruse by means of which to ob- 
tain the Indians' horses. After everybody had 
spoken, Isidoro offered to decoy the Indians into 
the hands of the mutineers on condition that, in 
the event of his being successful, his own horses 
should be returned to him, and he should be al- 
lowed to go back to Sandy Point. 

Isidoro was well known to most of the mu- 
tineers by reputation as a man of great craft and 
adroitness, and as they had no doubt of his ability 
to be as good as his word, his offer was eagerly 
accepted. He then explained that in the first 
place it was necessary before maturing his plans 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



287 



that he should reconnoitre the Indian camp, and 
in order not to arouse the suspicions of Ri- 
quelmes, he requested that two men should be 
sent to accompany him. Of these two, he had no 
doubt that he would be able to dispose in some 
way or other, as soon as he had got a safe dis- 
tance from the main band, as, strange to say, his 
capturers had neglected to take his revolver from 
him. The rest of his escape he left to Providence 
and his good horse. 

But fate was willing to make matters easier for 
him than he anticipated. Riquelmes was com- 
pletely taken in by this little artifice, and fearing 
lest the sight of the Chilians should awaken mis- 
trust in the mind of the Indians, he suggested 
that Isidoro should go alone. 

Five minutes afterwards Isidoro was leisurely 
cantering over the plain in the direction of the 
mysterious specks, to whose timely appearance 
he owed his sudden release. After he had gone 
about two miles, the plain was crossed by a deep 
canon. Into this he descended, disappearing, of 
course, from view of the mutineers, who expect- 
ed to see him shortly emerge again on the oppo- 
site side. How long they watched for his re-appear- 
ance is neither here nor there, but after a certain 



2 88 WANDERINGS IN PA TA GONIA; OR, 

lapse of time it no doubt gradually began to 
dawn upon them that they had been guilty of 
considerable simplicity, and that in all probability 
they would never see Isidoro again. 

As for him, the moment he reached the bottom 
of the canon, he clapped spurs to his horse, and 
followed its windings at breakneck speed till 
night-fall, and then, after a short rest, he rode up 
on the plain, and commenced traveling south- 
wards again, so that by day-break he was many 
miles behind the mutineers, and perfectly secure 
from any chance of being pursued. He was, of 
course, happy to escape with his life, but all his 
horses being lost, he was now a poor man ; his 
prediction as to the unfortunate issue to his trip, 
which he had made on losing his whip in crossing 
the Santa Cruz, was thus strangely verified. It 
was providential after all that Guillaume and I 
had crossed the Gallegos when Ave did ; for we 
should otherwise have doubtless been taken pris- 
oners by the mutineers, together with Isidoro, and 
being bouc/ies inutiles, they would probably have 
shot us. 

The mutineers slowly worked their way north- 
wards, their numbers being daily thinned by the 
fatal disputes, which were of frequent occurrence. 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 289 

The horseless stragglers, too, unable to keep up 
with the main body, gradually died off from star- 
vation and exposure, and finally in the month of 
February an expedition, sent to the Patagonian 
coast by the Argentine Government, captured all 
that remained of the band, in the persons of 
about forty half-starved wretches, who were found 
wandering about the country somewhere in the 
vicinity of Port Desire. They were taken up to 
Buenos Ayres, and some difficulty as to their ex- 
tradition having arisen between the Chilian and 
the Argentine Governments, they are still in 
prison in that city. The most culpable of the 
band taken prisoners by the Magcllancs were 
shot at Sandy Point, last March, and the others 
were condemned to various periods of penal serv- 
itude. 



I was leaning over the bulwarks of the steam- 
er which was bearing me rapidly out of the straits 
back to the noisy work-a-day world. I had come 
up on deck to have a last look at Patagonia, for 
we were nearing Cape Virgines, and should now 
soon lose sight of land altogether. Darkness was 
19 



290 WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA; OR, 

coming on apace, cold gusts of wind ploughed up 
the foaming water, and the clouded sky looked 
gloomy and threatening. The main-land, half 
shrouded in a thick white fog, frowned sullenly 
down upon us as we swept past, and the dull 
muffled roar of the sea on the stony beach, which 
at intervals struck dismally on my ear, sounded 
like a half-suppressed growl, with which the gen- 
ius of the solitudes I was now leaving bade me 
good speed. 

"Well," said a friend at my elbow, "I suppose 
you would not care to go to Patagonia again ?" 

I glanced at the scene before me, and as cer- 
tain unpleasant memories which it called forth 
passed through my mind, I answered, shudder- 
ing, and with decided emphasis, "By Jove, no!" 

Perhaps, had the day been fine, the sea smooth, 
the sky cloudless and blue, and the green slopes 
of the main-land bright with cheering sunshine, 
my answer might not have been so uncompro- 
misingly in the negative. Forgetting minor incon- 
veniences, I might have remembered only the 
pleasant features of my sojourn in the pampa, 
the rough simplicity of my every-day life, the 
frank kindness of my unconventional companions, 
the delights of the chase, the glorious gallops 



LIFE AMONG THE OSTRICH-HUNTERS. 



29I 



into immensity, with the pure exhilarating air of 
the desert rushing into my lungs and making my 
whole being glow with intense animation, the 
cheerful gathering round the warm camp fire af- 
ter the day's hard work, the hearty supper, the 
fragrant pipe, and then the sweet sleep in the 
open air, with the stars shining into my dreams. 

Those whose health has deteriorated, and whose 
nerves have been unstrung in the fulfillment of 
the stern exigencies of their professions, and the 
still more arduous duties society imposes on its 
votaries ; those who cannot do this, that, or the 
other "as well as they used to"; those who are 
inclined to hypochondriacism or obesity; those 
who are weary of the colorless monotony of their 
routine existence, and long to fly from the beaten 
track of "all the world," and escape to some 
country where the postman's knock is not heard, 
and where they may be safe from the importuni- 
ties of creditors, and the kind solicitude of friends, 
from "at homes," daily papers, sestheticism, Bul- 
garian and all other horrors, political and social, 
of which every one is well able to make a list for 
himself—to these I would recommend Patagonia. 
Nowhere else is there an area of seventy- two 
thousand square miles, which you may roam over 



292 



WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA. 



without meeting a human being, and where, at 
the same time, you are safe from any danger 
from fevers, wild beasts, noxious serpents, blood- 
thirsty savages, mosquitoes, and similar nuisances. 



INDEX. 



Armadillo, the, 78. 

Bagual, the, 64. 

Ball, an Indian, 117. 

Beerbohm, Julius, author of 
the book, sails from Buenos 
Ayres for the coast of Pat- 
agonia, 1 ; encounters a 
storm, 3 ; arrives at the port 
of St. Julian, 5 ; makes an 
excursion into the interior, 
12 ; first night in the desert ; 
22 ; joins a party of ostrich- 
hunters, 30 ; starts for Santa 
Cruz, 47 ; race with an os- 
trich, 51 ; adventure with a 
wild stallion, 64 ; fall from 
his horse, 77 ; kills a puma, 
82 ; in an Indian encamp- 
ment, 86, 104 ; arrives at 
Pavon Island, 109 ; attends 
an Indian ball, 117 ; sets out 
for Sandy Point, 122 ; sick- 
ness, 124 ; finds the Gallegos 
River flooded, 130 ; resolves 
to swim it, 144 ; prepara- 
tions for the attempt, 148 ; 
final attempt, 176 ; narrow 
escape from drowning, 178; 
loses his horses, 192 ; meets 
with the Indians, 204 ; 
reaches civilization again, 
230 ; involved in a mutiny, 
238 ; escape to the woods, 
258 ; bids adieu to Patago- 
nia, 289. 

Bolas, use of the, 35, 70. 

Boots, potro, 38, 94. 

Brillat-Savarin, 237. 



Cabeza del Mar, 226. 
Cabo Negro, 230, 282. 
Calafate bush, 115, 161, 162. 
Capa, the, 34. 
Carona, the, 48. 
Carrancho, the, 24, 81, 165. 
Chiripa, the, 94. 
Chubut, Welsh colony at, 28. 
Coluguape, Lake, 27. 

Darwin, on formation of the 

plains, 114. 
Dogs, 59. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 6. 
Dublet, Governor, escape of, 

280. 
Dublet, Mrs., 252, 256. 
Dunsmuir, the English consul, 

247 ; his house pillaged by 

the mutineers, 255, 270. 

Emilio, ostrich-hunter, 220, 
225. 

Fitzroy, Admiral, 112. 
Flamingoes, flock of, 76. 
Foxes, 165. 

Gallegos River,flood of the, 129 

Garcia, companion of the au- 
thor, 40. 

Guanacos, 19, 50, 127 ; hunting 
of, 80, 187 ; description of, 
81 ; dung of, as fuel, 200. 

Guaraike, 139, 156. 

Guillaume, companion of the 
author, 41,46, 145, 185, 249. 

Horses, freaks of, 47 ; wild, 
293 



294 



INDEX. 



64, 67 ; endurance of, 127, 

228. 

Ibis, the, 162. 

Indians, 84, 86, 128, 205 ; de- 
scription of, 90 ; marriage 
customs of, 95 ; religion of, 
100; funeral customs of, 102; 
gambling propensity of, 106, 
108 ; description of a camp, 
104; Tehuelche, 89, in, 
210 ; obstinacy of, 212. 

" Infeliz," 202. 

Isidoro, companion of the au- 
thor, 37, 39, 46 ; his predic- 
tion, 77; his ill omen, 122 ; 
escapes from the mutineers, 
287. 

Jume bush, 115. 

Madrinas, the, 50. 

Magellan, 6, 7 ; Straits of, 114, 
229, 232. 

Mate plant, 31. 

Maximo, companion of the au- 
thor, 42. 

McGregor, 248, 255, 260, 271. 

Missionaries, in. 

Moreno, Dr., 27, 29, 113. 

Musters, Captain, 37, 81, 85. 

Mutiny at Sandy Point, 238. 

Orkeke, 207 ; strange conduct 

of, 211. 
Ostriches, hunting of, 51 ; nests 

°f> 53> 77> J 8g ; habits of, 

54, 55; meat of, 58, 202; 

method of cooking the eggs 

of, 171. 
Ostrich-hunter, profession of 

the, 33, 35 ; amateur, 220 ; 

epicurean, 224. 

Pampa dinner, a, 57. 



Patagonia, climate of, 10, 57, 
68; vegetation of, n, 18, 
115, 161 ; topography and 
soil, 13, 15, 18, 73 ; attempts 
to colonize, 14 ; products of, 
15, 26 ; rivers of, 27. 29, 84 ; 
population of, 88; scenery of, 
113, 116; geological forma- 
tion of, 114, 161, 199, 223, 
290. 

Peckett's Harbor, 226. 

Port Desire, colony at, 29. 

Puma, the, 71, 82. 

Ravine of the Squaws, 128. 

Rio Chico River, 84. 

Riquelmes, chief of mutineers, 
279, 280, 287. 

Rouquand, M., fishery enter- 
prise of, 16, III. 

Salinas in the pampas, 76. 

Salt lake, a, 19. 

Sandy Point, 227, 233 ; de- 
scription of, 234 ; mutiny 
at, 238 ; pillaged, 243, 281 ; 
fired, 270; condition of, after 
the mutiny, 276, 278. 

Santa Cruz River, 1 1 2. 

' ' Scots wha hae," 249, 260, 
271. 

Shag, covey of, 12. 

Sholl, Lieutenant, burial place 
of, 6, 10. 

Stampede of horses, 192, 195. 

St. Julian, port of, I, 5, 26 ; 
colony of, 14. 

Strength, remarkable feat of, 
91. 

Swans' nests, 169, 173. 

Viedma, Lake, 113. 
Volcano, the Chalten, 113. 

Wild fowl, 162, 167. 



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018 350 

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